National examination for medical residency admission: academic variables and performance among different schools

To identify medical school characteristics associated with performance in a medical residency admission test.

Performance and selection rates according to type of medical school (Student´s t-test, Chi-squared test), accreditation status (Student´s t-test) and geographic regions (Anova) were analyzed from a database comprising 153 654 physicians who took the residency admission test Examen Nacional de Aspirantes a Residencias Médicas (ENARM) in the period 2014-2018.

Performance was 62.5% for accredited programs and 61.4% for non-accredited programs (p<0.001); public schools reached 62.3% and private schools 62.2% (p<0.001). Northern regions performed above 63% while South-Southeast at 58.9% (p<0.001). Selection rate was 26.2% for accredited programs and 22.9% for non-accredited (p<0.001); 26.6% for public schools and 23.6% for private schools (p<0.001). North-East and North-West reached 31% while South-Southeast 20.7%.

Type of school, accreditation status and geographic region may influence performance and selection rate.