• Mavourneen Casey, David Wilkinson, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Diann Eley, and Jason Connor.
• The University of Queensland , Australia and.
• Med Teach. 2014 Jul 1;36(7):640-2.

BackgroundAlthough contentious most medical schools interview potential students to assess personal abilities such as communication.AimsTo investigate any differences in clinical communication skills (CCS) between first year students admitted to UQ medical school with or without an admissions interview.MethodsA retrospective analysis of 1495 student assessment scores obtained after structured communication skills training (CCS) between 2007 and 2010.ResultsThe average assessment score was 3.76 ([95% CI, 3.73-3.78]) and adjusting for student characteristics, showed no main effect for interview (p = 0.89). The strongest predictor of scores was gender with females achieving significantly higher scores (3.91 [95% CI, 3.54-4.28] vs. 3.76 [95% CI, 3.39-4.13]; p ≤ 0.001).ConclusionsData show no differences in post-training assessment measures between students who were interviewed during selection or not. Further research about the quality and retention of communications skills after training is warranted.

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