Medical school preadmission interviews: are structured interviews more reliable than unstructured interviews?

Background: The medical education research literature consistently recommends a structured format for the medical school preadmission interview. There is, however, little direct evidence to support this recommendation.

Purpose: To shed further light on this issue, the present study examines the respective reliability contributions from the structured and unstructured interview components at the University of Iowa.

Examining the influence of using same versus different questions on the reliability of the medical school preadmission interview.

Background: Researchers generally recommend a structured format for the medical school preadmission interview (MSPI). However, the relative benefits of various elements of structure remain unexamined.

Purpose: In this study, we compared the performance of a highly structured interview format with a semistructured format.