Validity evidence for the Hamburg multiple mini-interview.

Background: Multiple mini-interviews (MMI) become increasingly popular for the selection of medical students. In this work, we examine the validity evidence for the Hamburg MMI.

Methods: We conducted three follow-up studies for the 2014 cohort of applicants to medical school over the course of two years.

[Selection of medical students : Measurement of cognitive abilities and psychosocial competencies].

The German Constitutional Court is currently reviewing whether the actual study admission process in medicine is compatible with the constitutional right of freedom of profession, since applicants without an excellent GPA usually have to wait for seven years. If the admission system is changed, politicians would like to increase the influence of psychosocial criteria on selection as specified by the Masterplan Medizinstudium 2020.What experiences have been made with the actual selection procedures? How could Situational Judgement Tests contribute to the validity of future selection procedures to German medical schools?High school GPA is the best predictor of study performance, but is more and more under discussion due to the lack of comparability between states and schools and the growing number of applicants with top grades.

Acquisition of dental skills in preclinical technique courses: influence of spatial and manual abilities.

Sixty years of research have not added up to a concordant evaluation of the influence of spatial and manual abilities on dental skill acquisition. We used Ackerman's theory of ability determinants of skill acquisition to explain the influence of spatial visualization and manual dexterity on the task performance of dental students in two consecutive preclinical technique courses. We measured spatial and manual abilities of applicants to Hamburg Dental School by means of a multiple choice test on Technical Aptitude and a wire-bending test, respectively.