General intellectual ability of university entrants in Sri Lanka

Students are admitted to university in Sri Lanka on the basis of aggregate marks above a certain cut-off point obtained at the GCE (advanced level) examination. On this criterion and on a district-quota basis operative for the whole island, high performers are admitted to the medical faculties. Those with lower aggregate marks are admitted to the other life science faculties. High performance at the GCE (advanced level) examination is considered to reflect high general intellectual ability and vice versa. A group of students who failed to obtain university admission on their relatively poor GCE (advanced level) examination performance was used for a preliminary study. This study revealed that several students were of high general intellectual ability. A similar study carried out on groups of new entrants to the life science courses at the University of Peradeniya (which included medical students) showed that the groups did not differ significantly in general intellectual ability from the non-University group. Students of high general intellectual ability were found distributed evenly in all the groups studied.