Abstract:

Introduction:
Despite the numerous scientific papers concerning shaping admission policy on medical universities, there is still no consensus in the subject of efficiency and reliability of tools for selecting candidates to universities for faculties connected with educating in the field of the selected specialisations in health sciences.
Between 2012 and 2013, the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW) made certain changes in entrance test content outlines which aim was to increase the specificity of evaluation of candidates for studies of the 2nd degree at the faculty of Dietetics and Food Science (D&FS).
From the point of view of selecting the best candidates, criteria that are more beneficial are such that are characterised by considerable specificity, so as to avoid a situation in which there are people insufficiently prepared for studies among the students beginning their university career.

Aim of study:
The aim of the presented analysis was a comparative evaluation of quality of two consecutive entry exam editions for studies of the 2nd degree at the faculty of D&FS at MUW, which was carried out in 2012 and 2103.

Materials and Methods:
Entry exam for studies of the 2nd degree were analysed at the faculty of D&F carried out in 2012 (n = 83) and 2013 (n = 104), which comprised of the score from the test and GPA (grade point average) value from the period of studies of the 1st degree. In order to perform the discrimination analysis, in each of the MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) exams three groups of questions were identified, according to the topic: human nutritional sciences, clinical outline of diseases, and clinical nutrition.
Evaluation of the test exam quality was performed establishing item easiness and discriminating power of the individual questions and distractors and to determine reliability of the test, Cronbach’s alpha was determined. To evaluate dependency between score achieved in a certain area of knowledge and a total score in the exam, r-Pearson linear correlation coefficient was used. To evaluate discrimination power of the identified thematic groups and GPA value, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed for two categories accepted/not accepted.

Results:
The analysis of two editions of the exam shows quite significant differences in reliability of a test questions set (α coefficient in 2012 and 2013 was 0.682 and 0.803, respectively). r-Pearson correlation coefficient for questions in clinical nutrition was greatly improved in 2013 when this set was questions in MCQs was increased (r-Pearson was 0.492 and 0.908, respectively). Moreover, it was observed that a change in question proportion in 2013 resulted in a more even spread of discrimination power on all three thematic areas. When comparing recruitment in 2012 and 2013 it was observed that GPA values are a weak selective factor, which is particularly visible in the edition of 2013 (AUC in 2012 and 2013: 0.6221 and 0.5109, respectively).

Conclusions:
It is recommended that further evaluation of consecutive editions of an exam for the 2nd degree of studies be performed at the faculty of D&FS, by fine-tuning details of test content outlines. It is also recommended to evaluate selective efficiency of GPA further. Constant monitoring of students’ progress should be performed as well as graduates’ careers of those who completed their education at D&FS at MUW.

Keywords:

Admission criteria, admission test, admission policy, grade point average, dietetics and food science.