The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among admissions criteria and academic
performance of “Newtract” dental students at Thammasat University. This study consisted of a retrospective analysis
of 242 students who enrolled in Thammasat dental program between 1996 and 2010. Data about admissions criteria
and academic records of the students were obtained from the Office of the Registrar. Multiple regression analyses
were used to identify the best combination of predictors in the regression equation. As two groups of admissions
criteria were used during the time period of the study, the regression analyses were then divided into two groups,
Group 1: including eight predictors, i.e., predental GPAX, scores on six subjects & manual dexterity; and Group 2:
including four predictors, i.e., predental GPAX and scores on three parts of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).
Three academic performance categories were considered: GPA for each academic year, overall GPAX and preclinical
performance in restorative dentistry, endodontology, and prosthodontics courses. Predental GPAX
correlated positively with GPA in each level of the dental curriculum, and overall GPAX in both groups (p<0.05). In
Group 1, the best model for predicting academic performance is the model with four predictors, i.e., predental
GPAX, scores on biology, physics and English, these four predictors accounted for 31 % (R2=0.31) of variance in the
predicted values for second year GPA. In Group 2, the best model for predicting second year GPA (R2=0.33) and
dental GPAX (R2=0.32) is the model with one predictor, i.e., predental GPAX. Other models show significant correlation
between other admissions criteria and academic performance, they accounted for 7-26 % of variance in predicted
values for the academic outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between predental
GPAX and scores of some subject tests with academic performance, however, the predictive ability is weak.