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Journal of Medical Education

Abstract

Entry into the medical programme at the International Medical University (IMU) requires students to have three of the four science subjects (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics) at the pre-university level. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between taking biology at pre-university level and students' academic performance in Semester 1. The academic banding, based on certain academic criteria, are also taken into consideration for analysis. Students' academic performance in the end of semester 1 examination as well as the two in-course assessments was analysed to gauge the relationship between pre-university biology and academic performance. The majority of the students (86%) from the two cohorts analysed, had pre-university biology, and this is reflected in all the four academic bands. The results indicate that in general, pre-university biology does not contribute significantly to students' academic performance during the early years in the IMU medical programme. There are significant differences in academic performance between students from different academic bands, whereby, students from bands one and two performed significantly better than students from bands three and four. However, there is no significant association between academic performance and pre-university biology for students from the different academic bands. Thus, it is concluded that pre-university biology does not provide an advantage to medical students in IMU. It is the academic banding that is more important. Thus, students who fall within the lower bands require closer monitoring than those without pre-university biology.

First Page

56

Last Page

62

DOI

10.6145/jme.200706_11(2).0006

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