Grades as predictors of physiciansʼ career performance

Wingard, John R.; Williamson, John

doi:10.1097/00001888-197304000-00002

Cited by 80 publications

(53 citation statements)

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“…Although convenient, numerous studies have demonstrated that these criteria do not correlate well with ultimate professional performance as a resident or physician. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Noncognitive personality attributes are much more difficult to assess from the ERAS application, but may actually be more important to predicting professional success. 10,[34][35][36][37] The SLOR specifically addresses several of these noncognitive domains by asking that all candidates be ranked relative to their peers under "Qualification for EM" (i.e., commitment, work ethic, ability to develop an appropriate differential, personality).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors' Standardized Letter of Recommendation: The Program Director's Perspective

Love

Smith

Weizberg

et al. 2014

Academic Emergency Medicine

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Objectives: The standardized letter of evaluation (SLOE) was created in 1997 to provide residency program directors (PDs) with a summative evaluation that incorporates normative grading (i.e., comparisons to peers applying to emergency medicine [EM] training). Although the standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) has become increasingly popular and important in decision-making, it has not been studied in the past 12 years. To assess the SLOR's effectiveness and limitations, the perspective of EM PDs was surveyed in this study.Methods: After validation of the questionnaire by 10 retired PDs, the survey was sent to the PD of each of the 159 EM residencies that existed at that time. The survey was circulated via the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors' (CORD) listserv from January 24, 2013, to February 13, 2013. Weekly e-mail reminders to all PDs served to increase participation.Results: A total of 150 of 159 PDs (94.3%) completed the questionnaire. Nearly all respondents (149 of 150; 99.3%) agreed that the SLOR is an important evaluative tool and should continue to be used. In the application process, 91 of 150 (60.7%) programs require one or more SLORs, and an additional 55 (36.7%) recommend but do not require a SLOR to be considered for interview. When asked to identify the top three factors in deciding who should be interviewed, the SLOR was ranked first (139 of 150; 92.7%), with EM rotation grades ranked second (73 of 150; 48.7%). The factors that were most often identified as the top three that diminish the value of the SLOR in order were 1) "inflated evaluations" (121 of 146; 82.9%), 2) "inconsistency between comments and grades" (106 of 146; 72.6%), and 3) "inadequate perspective on candidate attributes in the written comments" and "inexperienced authors" (60 of 146; 41.1% each). Conclusions:The SLOR appears to be the most important tool in the EM PD's armamentarium for determining which candidates should be interviewed for residency training. Although valuable, the SLOR's potential utility is hampered by a number of factors, the most important of which is inflated evaluations. Focused changes in the SLOR template should be mindful that it appears, in general, to be successful in its intended purpose.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2014;21:680-687 © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine P rior studies have shown that traditional narrative letters of recommendation (NLOR) suffer from a number of significant limitations. Such letters do not predict future performance.1,2 They often repeat cognitive merits of the applicant and do not specifically address noncognitive domains that may be more predictive of performance as a resident. 2,3 The information that is provided is not comparative and is often

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors' Standardized Letter of Recommendation: The Program Director's Perspective

Love

Smith

Weizberg

et al. 2014

Academic Emergency Medicine

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“…The strongest predictors of overall resident performance were number of honors grades during the third and fourth years of medical school, election to AOA, and faculty evaluations of resident applicants' psychomotor performance [6,7]. Others suggest no ''correlation exists for achievements in the clinical years, for postgraduate training, or as physicians'' [13] between the MCAT and subsequent practice [12] or between undergraduate grades and performance as a physician [19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of Success on the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Examination

Herndon

Allan

Dyer

et al. 2009

Clinical Orthopaedics &Amp; Related Research

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Predictors of success of orthopaedic residents on the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) examination are controversial. We therefore evaluated numerous variables that may suggest or predict candidate performance on the ABOS examination. We reviewed files of 161 residents (all graduates) from one residency program distributed into two study groups based on whether they passed or failed their first attempt on the ABOS Part I or Part II examination from 1991 through 2005. Predictors of success/failure on the ABOS I included the mean percentile score on the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE) (Years 2 through 4), the percentile OITE score in the last year of training, US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) score, Dean's letter, election to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), and number of honors in selected third-year clerkships. All but the USMLE score predicted passing the ABOS Part II examination. These data suggest there are objective predictors of residents' performance on the ABOS Part I and Part II examinations.

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“…Teachers who successfully train their students to do well on standardized exams often get rewarded based on these metrics . Despite the intense focus on exams and grade performance as a gating item to entry into medical school and to progression within medical school, some studies show performance on these measures is not well correlated with performance as a doctor (Wingard & Williamson 1973;Taylor & Albo 1993;Probert et al 2003). Furthermore,…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%