[THE NATIONAL FINAL INTERNAL MEDICINE EXAMINATION SCORE - IS IT PREDICTABLE?]

INTRODUCTION: There is no current medical licensing examination in Israel (2016). The only objective indicators which reflect students' medical knowledge and basic clinical reasoning skills are the national medical examination scores. The aim of the present study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between students' demography, gender and academic achievements during their pre-clinical studies and their final national internal medicine examination scores. METHODS: The study was based on data collected by the Technion information system. The study cohort consisted of medical students admitted to the Technion Faculty of Medicine over a decade from 2005-2014, via a standard admission procedure. Students accepted on the basis of former academic achievement were not part of this cohort. The cohort was divided into three, based on the level of success in the final national examination in internal medicine. CONCLUSIONS: Our main conclusions were: (1) the admission screening criteria (scores of matriculation and psychometric tests) are helpful markers for predicting success in the final examination in internal medicine; (2) students who performed the psychometric tests in the Arabic language have relatively lower-achieving grades in the final examination in internal medicine in comparison to students taking the same psychometric exam in the Hebrew language. Furthermore, (3) high achievements in core preclinical courses and especially in the "integrative course" in the first 2 trimesters of the fourth year of studies are relatively strong predictors for success in the final examination in internal medicine.