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Authors | Institution |
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Michael Chan Nigel Bax Rod Nicolson Mike Jennings Caroline Woodley Philip Chan |
University of Sheffield |
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| Does experience of public performance relate to students' results in the OSCE examination? |
Most applicants to medical school have similar academic records and test scores. Extra-curricular activities are used to distinguish between candidates without much evidence that these are relavant to medical school acheivement. We thought that a focused approach to look at applicants experience in a high stakes public situation might correlate with their performance in the first OSCE.
There was no linear correlation between overall scores for public performance and OSCE scores.
There was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between students who scored 0 for verbal performance at the time of application and the top 10% of those who scored highly in verbal perfomance.
There is a slight negative correlation for applicants who scored highly in motor activities, particularly in sport but this was not statistically significant.
UCAS personal statements from an entire year cohort (n=253) were analysed.
Experience in public performance such as theatre, debate and vocal music (classified as verbal performance) and sports, dance and instrumental music (classified as motor performance) were coded.
Scores 0 to 3 were assigned according to the intesity and high stakes of the performance of the activity.
- None stated (0)
- Leisure standard (1)
- Competitive standard (2)
- Representative standard (3)
Students scores were correlated with their results of their first OSCE.
Students with experience in verbal activities at high stakes levels have significantly better OSCE results compared to students who declare no experience in these areas.
The performance enhancement is not just in history stations, but also in physical examination stations in the OSCE. This suggests that speaking skills are important in both types of stations.
Focused and detailed analysis of admissions statements does correlate with student achievement, in contrast to previous studies which use some type of global rating (where negative correlates might have cancelled out positive ones).
Pre-admission experience of high stakes public performance in theatre, debate, and vocal music is associated with better performance in the first OSCE.