BACKGROUND
The Copperbelt University is the second public University in Zambia. The School of Medicine has four major programs namely; Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Clinical Medicine and Bachelor of Biomedical sciences. The Copperbelt University School of Medicine runs a five-year training program for both the BDS and the MBCHB programs. Students are admitted into the Medical school after successfully completing their first year at the Main campus in the School of Natural Sciences with an average of 4 B grades or higher (B grade is a mark of 65 to 74%).
OBJECTIVE
The study was done to determine the association between admission criteria and academic performance among preclinical students. Hence, the study compares the academic performance among preclinical students admitted into the Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the Copperbelt University School of Medicine.
METHODS
This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at Michael Chilufya Sata School of medicine Campus. A pilot study was conducted with 30 BDS and 30 MBCHB students and the obtained information helped determine the sample size. SPSS was used to analyze the data. The study period lasted approximately 7 weeks at a cost of K1621.
RESULTS
In 2014, there was an improvement in average performance between 2nd and 3rd year for each program. An average score of 15.4 (SD 4.2) was obtained in 3rd year compared to 12.8 (SD 4.9) in 2nd year (p<0.001). Meanwhile, 3rd MB ChB mean score was 12.6 (SD 3.7) compared to 10.7 (SD 3.6) in 2nd years (p<0.05). However, in 2016, both programs, 3rd year mean scores were lower than 2nd year (MB ChB 2nd year mean score was 12.0 (SD 4.3) compared to 3rd year with a mean score of 9.5 (SD 4.5), p<0.001; BDS 2nd year mean score was 10.6 (SD 4.0) compared to 3rd year mean score of 8.2 (SD 3.4), p<0.01. On average MB ChB students performed better than BDS students in all the years (p<0.05), except in 2016 when the results were comparable.
CONCLUSIONS
Results from the study shows that entry criteria has a correlation to academic performance as students admitted with higher grades perform much better than those with lower grades.