Introduction: When considering personal characteristics in undergraduate medical admission, professional prequalification (i.e., previous work experience in the medical field) and performance on situational judgement tests (SJTs) are prominent criteria. Despite evidence on the ability of professional prequalification and SJT performance to predict general interpersonal skills, their benefit for students’ concrete behavior in everyday situations remains unclear.

Methods: With the present study, we examined how undergraduate medical students with prior professional qualification and students with better SJT performance act in actual social situations by using a behavior-focused observer approach. Supervisors rated the students after a mandatory one-week practical training in general medicine on three distinguishable interpersonal dimensions, namely agency (i.e., assured-dominant), communion (i.e., warm-agreeable), and emotional stability (i.e., calm and stable). Prior to admission, participants (N = 210) completed a traditional SJT (i.e., HAM-SJT), a natural science test (i.e., HAM-Nat), and responded to sociodemographic questions.

Results: Controlling for cognitive admission criteria, age, and gender, students with prior professional qualifications were rated as more assured-dominant (β = 0.21; 95% CI [0.04; 0.39], p = 0.019), whereas students with better HAM-SJT performance were rated as more warm-agreeable (β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.02; 0.31], p = 0.024).

Discussion: The results value both admission criteria as complements to cognitive criteria in undergraduate selection but emphasize their differentiated focus on students’ interpersonal behavior. Medical schools are invited to review their admission criteria based on the present findings and on the question of required and learnable skills.