Further observation on study difficulty in university students including 'syllabus-boundess'

Audit of admission to medical school: I--Acceptances and rejects

A prospective study of the process of application, selection, and admission to medical school was performed. St Mary's Hospital Medical School received 1478 UCCA applications for admission in October 1981: 94 (6.4%) applicants entered St Mary's in October 1981, 436 (29.5%) entered other medical schools, 176 (11.9%) read a subject other than medicine, and 772 (52.2%) did not enter university. The study included 12.6% of all applicants and 12.9% of all entrants to British medical schools in October 1981. Educational qualifications, demographic variables, type of schooling, family background, and the manner of application were examined in relation to overall selection. A level achievement was the major determinant of acceptance. O level achievement, early application, and medical parents had significant but smaller independent effects on the chance of acceptance. Social class, age, sex, and school type did not predict acceptance when corrected for academic and other factors. Few differences in personality, career preference, cultural interests or attitudes were found between those accepted and those rejected.

Sex differences, personality and study difficulty in university students

A study difficulty inventory and three sets of personality scales were administered to 145 students attending a university health centre. Motivational and psychoneurotic components of study difficulty were identified, which were differentially related in male and female students to basic personality characteristics and to psychiatric symptomatology. Syllabus-boundness emerged as more salient in the female students, and self-esteem in the males. Poor academic performance was found to be associated with distinctive personality profiles in the two sexes. Both intra-personality and social–psychological interactional factors appear to underlie the pattern of results.