Correlation between students' results in pre-clinical and final surgery examinations

The results obtained in each subject of the first 4 years of a 6 year course in medicine were assessed and compared with the final result obtained in surgery together with the result from a class test in surgery at the beginning of the fifth year. Two hundred and thirty-five students graduating between 1969 and 1973 were assessed, the correlations being tested with regression techniques. There was a highly significant degree of correlation between the final surgery result and all the previous records. However, there was a wide scatter of results, and the predictive value for the individual student was imprecise.