Deanery placement and the Situational Judgement Test

Abstract

Mycroft J Halliwell-Ewen,1 Charlotte Lee,2 Dipesh P Gopal31Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK 2Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK 3Department of Stroke Medicine, Royal Free Hospital, London, UKSingagireson et al1 explored the contentious issue of allocating Foundation Programme posts using the Situational Judgement Test (SJT), a system that has been criticized on the basis of fairness.2,3 The authors found evidence4 that suggested academic performance at medical school did not correlate with SJT scores, and suggested that relative success on the SJT could artificially inflate academic scores attained at medical school. They concluded that the SJT was a fair means of assessing other skills required in the role of a physician. Whilst we are in agreement, the argument they present fails to examine the reasoning behind using the SJT.View the original letter here