Implications of Requiring the Physician Assistant College Admissions Test on Physician Assistant Program Applicant Pool: Lessons Learned.

Abstract

Introduction: To present a physician assistant (PA) program's experience and lessons learned by requiring a new standardized test as an admissions requirement. A state academic PA program changed an admission requirement by requiring the Physician Assistant College Admissions Test (PA-CAT) instead of the Graduate Record Examination. The admissions requirement change correlated with a 72% drop in the applicant pool.

Methods: Data from previous literature present background information on standardized testing and predictors of student success. The program-specific data retrospectively evaluate changes in application numbers.

Results: Several studies have evaluated various preadmission metrics and their correlation to student success. However, the PA-CAT and its predictor of student success in the program and passing the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam still need to be evaluated.

Discussion: Requiring standardized testing increases the barrier to applicant PA school admissions. Despite its potential, the PA-CAT has yet to be extensively studied to predict success in matriculated PA students and should be used cautiously. The implications of using the PA-CAT as an admissions requirement are a potential decrease in the strength of applicants, the number of total applicants, and the overall decline in the quality of graduating PAs. This cautionary note is crucial for maintaining the quality and integrity of our PA programs.