Table 4 Difficulties encountered with the UMAT and Oral assessment and their association with either the offer of an interview or a place in the medical school

UMAT (n = 1097)

Time limit

619 (56.4)

0.88 (0.68-1.14)

0.325

1

Can’t convey personal skills

547 (49.9)

0.67 (0.52-0.86)

0.002

0.026

No idea if answers are correct

474 (43.2)

0.95 (0.74-1.22)

0.689

1

Inability to prepare/learn for this type of test

364 (33.2)

0.47 (0.35-0.63)

<0.001

<0.001**

Preparation costs

313 (28.5)

0.76 (0.57-1.01)

0.056

0.728

Timing of UMAT in terms of school exams

293 (26.7)

0.48 (0.35-0.66)

<0.001

<0.001**

Absence of breaks

194 (17.7)

1.10 (0.80-1.53)

0.554

1

Attendance costs

200 (18.2)

0.68 (0.48-0.95)

0.025

0.325

Exam environment

171 (15.6)

0.91 (0.64-1.29)

0.596

1

Timing of results in terms of school exams

153 (14.0)

0.69 (0.47-1.02)

0.061

0.793

Getting to the exam

94 (8.6)

0.86 (0.54-1.37)

0.527

1

Other (eg stress, organisation)

124 (11.3)

0.93 (0.63-1.40)

0.752

1

No difficulties

40 (3.7)

2.35 (1.25-4.43)

0.007

0.091

Stage of application process

Difficulty

Frequency of responses (%)

Odds ratio of being offered an interview or place given they found the variable difficult (95% CIs)

Uncorrected P value

Corrected P value

Oral Assessment (n = 359)

Hard to judge my performance

236 (65.7)

0.87 (0.54-1.41)

0.571

1

Cost of attending interview

124 (34.5)

0.78 (0.49-1.24)

0.294

1

It was difficult to structure answers

92 (25.6)

0.67 (0.40-1.10)

0.111

1

Getting to the interview

62 (17.3)

0.75 (0.42-1.34)

0.334

1

Questions were baffling

59 (16.4)

0.58 (0.32-1.03)

0.060

1

Inability to learn/prepare for the interview

59 (16.4)

0.49 (0.27-0.86)

0.012

0.204

Situational cards

53 (14.8)

1.59 (0.80-3.15)

0.186

1

Absence of questions concerning personal achievements

51 (14.2)

0.95 (0.50-1.79)

0.862

1

Interview environment

38 (10.6)

0.94 (0.45-1.94)

0.862

1

Time pressure

24 (6.7)

1.33 (0.51-3.45)

0.554

1

Timing of the interview

21 (5.9)

0.56 (0.23-1.37)

0.199

1

The interviewer tried to distract me

20 (5.6)

1.79 (0.59-5.55)

0.299

1

Received short notice of interview

15 (4.2)

0.48 (0.17-1.36)

0.249*

1

Preparation costs

14 (3.9)

0.57 (0.19-1.68)

0.374*

1

Presence of other applicants’ parents

11 (3.1)

0.76 (0.22-2.64)

0.741*

1

Other (eg anxiety, intimidating interviewers)

58 (16.2)

1.17 (0.63-2.19)

0.617

1

No difficulties

27 (7.5)

1.04 (0.44-2.45)

0.920