The current study investigated whether there is a correlation between dental students HS-GPA and their graduating cumulative AA-GPA. The first null hypothesis was rejected and a significant correlation of (0.3) was found between dental students' HS-GPA and their graduating cumulative AA-GPA. Furthermore, the second null hypothesis was also rejected, since dental students' AA-GPA is significantly correlated with their CC-JS.
In Jordan HS-GPA is based on the final exam scores of the final twelfth high school year. The high school has two divisions, Scientific and Theoretic streams. The Ministry of Higher Education in Jordan and the Jordan Dental Association mandate that individuals enrolling in dental schools should graduate from the scientific stream, with a minimum HS-GPA of 85%.
The body of research that has addressed the impact of preadmission factors on student success, or the achievement of professional licensure and graduation at the graduate level, is rich when analyzed across disciplines [19]. Pre-admission factors, defined broadly, are the scores or grades used to evaluate the academic and personal readiness of a prospective student to enter graduate-level specialty training [20, 21]. Achieving at a high level in preadmission factor scores is considered an excellent predictor of the likelihood for student success in their educational program [19].
When preadmission factors and selection tools are investigated separately, research supports a statistically significant correlation between HS-GPA and academic achievement and performance for students in dental and medical schools [4, 6, 7, 22, 23]. As HS-GPA is an important predictor of student AA-GPAs at health colleges [4, 22–24]. The results of our study in the School of Dentistry at University of Jordan support these findings and confirm them. However, interpreting these results has to be done carefully, since the statistically significant correlation between HS-GPA and the AA-GPA is weak (0.3). It is necessary to remember that correlations below 0.40 have limited predictive value, even if statistically significant [25]. This result is in accordance with other studies that showed that HS-GPA has limited value as a predictor of students’ performance [26], and thus necessitates using multiple criteria to better characterize the academic and psychomotor skills required for success in dental schools [24,–26].
Furthermore, there are other studies which stated clearly that the HS-GPA is an invalid predictable parameter of dental or medical students’ academic performance and success [20, 27]. In our study, the HS-GPA did not explain more than 9% of the AA-GPA variance. Thus, more variance in performance is left unexplained than explained by these selection tools [6, 25].
Other variables associated with undergraduate programs generally to college years and specifically to dental schools need to be considered when analyzing factors affecting the dental student AA-GPA [25], such as the noncognitive elements, psychomotor skills, personal characteristics, critical thinking, communication skills, teaching environment, life events and other variables taking place during college years in dental school which would affect the graduating AA-GPA rather than the HS-GPA.
While cumulative HS-GPA and graduating AA-GPA are variables which measure academic performance that depends on cognitive abilities, job performance depends on essential diverse of elements that are wider in prospective than just mathematical grades. It includes various dimensions which demand more complex set of tasks and skills composed of both cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. In health sector, in particular, it is of high significance, since it could affect the quality of patients' health care and service.
Roth et al. (1996) demonstrated the presence of a relationship between academic grades and job performance through meta-analysis [28]. However, Nelson (1975) argued that there were situations in which skills learned in college were not required for the practical life and skills such as social skills which are not learned in college courses affected job [14].
The link between job performance and job satisfaction was extensively studied in the literature, and a consistent relation was found between individuals’ job performance and job satisfaction regardless of the cause-effect assumptions [29–31]. On the other hand, does the motivated and high-achieving dental graduate excel at his or her career? Does he or she perform better than the norms? Is he or she satisfied with their career achievement and job situation?
The results of the current study demonstrated a significant positive correlation between AA-GPA and employment status. This result is in accordance with other studies that showed that the academic GPA is heavily weighted by many employers when going through resumes [12, 32].
On the other hand, our study demonstrated a significant negative correlation between AA-GPA and job satisfaction. In short, job satisfaction is the employee’s psychological perception of his or her job, such psychological perception comes mostly from the job itself “intrinsic satisfaction” and from the environment external to the job “extrinsic satisfaction” [33]. Indeed, extensive research was conducted and related personality traits to both job performance and job satisfaction [33–35]. Those studies found a significant positive correlation between the “Five Big” personality traits and job satisfaction [33, 36, 37].
We can argue that fresh graduate dentists with high AA-GPA may be shocked with the imperfect economical and professional reality which does not match their expectations and ambitions. As a result, the insecure situation might have yielded an emotionally unstable condition which reflected their job dissatisfaction [38]. This fact is widely present especially in developed countries, where highly ambitious achievers are faced with multiple challenges such as unemployment, low income, and lack of job security. These dental career challenges which are noticeable in Jordan as a developing country may explain the negative correlation between dentists’ AA-GPA, their ability to enjoy life, and their dissatisfaction with their income. In addition, 34.6% and 29.5% of the respondents were looking forward to starting their post-graduate studies and open their own clinics in five years, respectively. The lack of post-graduate educational opportunities and shortage of starting capital to open and run dental business consequently might have resulted in job dissatisfaction and frustration. Those results are not in accordance with Vermeulen and Schmidt study (2008), who showed that AA-GPA had a positive relationship with earnings and job satisfaction in the initial phase of the graduates’ working career [39]. Additionally, these results also contradict Thomas results (2000) who noted that alumni with high grades during their studies were later more successful in terms of earnings [40]. The economic status as one facet of multi facet career challenges for dentists in Jordan may explain these contradicting results. Moreover, the differences in the setting of the study; the place of the study (country), the timing (year), and the measurement scale might have contributed to the differences in the results.
As for the correlation with gender, there was a statistically positive correlation between gender and whether the dentist is currently employed or not and the type of employment (full time or part time). These results are expected under the given cultural circumstances, which include obstacles and burdens related to social and family barriers among females [41–43]. Although there is a clear feminization of dental schools in many countries [44] as in Jordan, children-caring and family duties hinder females from dominating in the dental market.
The results of the present study rejected the first null hypothesis; were there is a significant positive correlation between high school cumulative HS-GPA and graduating AA-GPA of dental students. The second null hypothesis was rejected too; there is a significant positive correlation between dental students' AA-GPA and their career choices CC-JS. These results mandate additional prospective studies with multivariate analysis will yield more informative results than retrospective studies providing deeper insight into dominant factors which affect academic performance. More studies are required to elucidate trends and predictors for successful academic performance, as well as to plan and evaluate organizational development and curriculum structure in dental education. Moreover, these results are significant because they identify the extent to which the preadmission criterion applied can predict successful dental graduates and the extent to which the academic performance can predict successful dentists. This important information is provided for policy makers looking to update their dental school admissions procedures in response to the changing dental educational landscape.