Principal Components Analyses of Predictor Variables in Dental Education.

This study was undertaken to determine the degree of factorial invariance that exists in a battery of predictor variables commonly used in the selection of applicants for dental school. The following variables were used in the analyses performed: 13 subscores from the Dental Aptitude Test Battery, Overall QPA, Required Courses QPA, years of undergraduate education, and a derived composite score. Principal components analysis was performed on the data for three separate classes. With relative consistency, the same three factors appeared in each of the analyses, and were labeled as follows: Science Aptitude, Prior Achievement, Manual Aptitude, and General Ability. (Author)