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Do graduate record examination (GRE) scores serve as strong predictors of student success in graduate school in nursing, and if so, is the extent to which they may indicate success outweighed by their perceived role as a barrier to application to graduate school in nursing? Academic ability, defined as cumulative grade point average (GPA), was used as the outcome indicator for success in graduate school and was compared with admission GRE scores for 217 students admitted to graduate programs at the University of Washington School of Nursing over a 1-year period. The GRE presented a large barrier to application that far outweighed the limited benefit of predicting 5% to 8% of explained variance in GPA.

We examined the contribution of Antonovsky's sense of coherence in explaining the variance of quality of life (QOL) in 84 patients 1-2 years following coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The hypothesis was: after controlling for variables related to poor health vulnerability, perceived support, self-esteem, and chronic illness trajectory instability and work, the addition of sense of coherence will significantly add to the explained variance of quality of life. The first two variables explained 49% of the variance of the QOL scale. Adding perceived social support, self-esteem and sense of coherence increased explained variance to 64%, 69%, and 75%, respectively. These findings supported our hypothesis., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.)