GCE Advanced Level Results in Fundamental Science Disciplines and Students’ Academic Performance in Medical Schools in Cameroon

Curriculum and Evaluation

Most nations in the world are striving to have competent and reliable health sectors which will serve as one of the guarantors of ensuring sustainable growth and development. One major means of achieving this is through the application of advanced selection mechanisms of students into medical schools. Students most often are selected based on their previous academic performance in the science subjects in high school. This study thus, set out to ascertain the extent to which the grades scored in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in the GCE A/L predict students’ academic performance in medical schools in Cameroon and the extent to which the grades scored in GCE A/L Biology, Chemistry and Physics motivate students to study medicine. The correlation survey research design was used to carry out the study. The sample population used for the study were students with GCE A/L background in three state medical schools in Cameroon namely; the medical schools of the Universities of Bamenda, Buea and Yaounde 1, selected through the judgmental sampling technique. In these medical schools, years 4, 5 and 6 were also selected using the judgmental sampling technique, so that the students’ results in the 1st,2ndand 3rd years could be used for the study. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 200 medical students from the prior sampled levels. A questionnaire made up of 32 items was used to collect data from the students. The hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using bivariate linear regression analysis through SPSS version 20.0. The results revealed that the grade scored in GCE A/L Biology insignificantly predicted students’ academic performance in the first and second year in medical schools but predicted significantly students’ academic performance in the third year. The grade scored in GCE A/L Chemistry significantly predicted students’ academic performance in medical schools in the first, second and third year. The grade scored in GCE A/L Physics significantly predicted students’ academic performance in the first, second and third years in medical schools. The results also revealed that GCE A/L results in Biology, Chemistry and Physics significantly motivated students to study medicine. From the findings, GCE A/L results in Chemistry and Physics and to a lower extent in Biology could logically be used to select students into medical schools and the grades scored in GCE A/L Biology, Chemistry and Physics could be used to motivate students to study medicine. Also, more weightings should be given to the grade scored in GCE A/L Physics in the selection of students into medical schools, as it discriminates best amongst the three fundamental science subjects.

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