Relationships among common measures of student performance and scores on the North American veterinary licensing examination

To determine relationships among several common measures of performance prior to and during veterinary school (ie Graduate Record Examination [GRE] scores undergraduate grade point average [UGPA] Qualifying Examination [QE] scores overall grade point average during veterinary school [VGPA] and scores for the North American Veterinary Licensing Design-Longitudinal retrospective study Sample Population-192 students from the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine and 152 students from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Procedures-Student UGPA VGPA and GRE score data were gathered during the normal admissions and academic processes The QE was administered as a low-stakes at both institutions for the purposes of curricular assessment Scores on the NAVLE were provided with student permission by the National Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners Path analysis was used to explore hypothesized relationships among variables. Results-GRE scores and UGPA predicted NAVLE scores indirectly through QE scores and VGPA whereas QE scores and VGPA directly predicted NAVLE scores.The resulting models explained 58% to 62% of the variance in NAVLE scores with QE score being the strongest Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Results indicated that for veterinary school students GRE scores UGPA VGPA and QE scores could be used to predict scores on the NAVLE. This suggests that these measures could prove useful to veterinary schools when admitting students or preparing them for the NAVLE.