Should applicants to Nottingham University Medical School study a non-science A-level? A cohort study

BMC Medical Education

Table 3 Significant independent predictors of course performance (hierarchical multivariate linear regression analysis)

Outcome variable	Predictor variable block^†	R²	ΔR² ^‡	Significant predictors^§	Beta	t
Themes A&B	1 (socio-demographic)	0.063	0.063*	Younger age group	-0.237	-2.92 **
	2 (A-levels)	0.263	0.200***	Younger age group	-0.262	-3.57 ***
				Higher tariff average	0.443	6.28 ***
Themes C&D	1 (socio-demographic)	0.104	0.104**	Home/EU fee status	0.183	1.98 *
				Female gender	0.225	2.95 **
	2 (A-levels)	0.171	0.068 **	Home/EU fee status	0.248	2.70 **
				Female gender	0.231	3.11 **
				Higher tariff average	0.246	3.29 **
Part II	1 (socio-demographic)	0.015	0.015	(none)
	2 (A-levels)	0.078	0.063 *	Higher tariff average	0.205	2.59 *
	3 (Themes A&B and C&D)	0.244	0.165 ***	Higher ave Themes C&D	0.390	4.30 ***
Clinical knowledge	1 (socio-demographic)	0.039	0.039	(none)
	2 (A-levels)	0.178	0.139 ***	Home/EU fee status	0.279	3.04 **
				Higher tariff average	0.325	4.36 ***
	3 (Themes A&B and C&D, and Part II)	0.479	0.301 ***	Higher ave Themes A&B	0.503	6.27 ***
				Higher ave Part II	0.144	2.13 *
Clinical Skills	1 (socio-demographic)	0.315	0.076 **	Home/EU fee status	0.239	2.59 *
				Female gender	0.199	2.61 *
	2 (A-levels)	0.353	0.084	Home/EU fee status	0.269	2.84 **
				Female gender	0.197	2.59 *
	3 (Themes A&B and C&D, and Part II)	0.561	0.269 ***	Higher ave Themes C&D	0.317	3.45 **

^† denotes the successive addition of variable blocks to the hierarchical regression, as defined in the Methods
^‡ a significant value in this column it indicates that the additional block of variables adds significantly (in terms of variance) to the prediction of the outcome variable.
^§ denotes the significant predictors found as each block of variables was added to the model
* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001

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