A national investigation on the impact of rurality on standardised clinical aptitude test performance

There remains a substantial disadvantage for rural applicants completing standardised tests for selection into medical school, and this worsens with increasing rurality. The performance gap between rural and metropolitan applicants has somewhat widened in the last five years, emphasising the need for immediate action to help address rural disadvantage within medical school selection. Failure to address this risks selection not aligning with social justice principles. Key actions include increased efforts from an earlier age to better support rural applicants, decreased reliance on these tests for selection decisions, or decreased direct competition between rural and metropolitan applicants through the use of quotas or separate tiers.