Medical schools are experimenting with psychometric tests in an attempt to get more students from less privileged backgrounds training to be doctors.

Up to 1,000 prospective students at universities in Scotland and the North East agreed to sit the tests this summer.

We need a system which allows us to measure not just the academic, but the professional potential of the candidate

Professor Reg Jordan, Newcastle University

The tests, which are modelled on those already in use in New South Wales in Australia, are designed to examine a candidate's abstract reasoning abilities, communication and problem-solving skills.

Candidates' results will be analysed and compared over the coming years with their performance at medical schools.

Medical schools hope the tests will help them to recruit a wider range of students from a broader social spectrum.

Social class

"Currently the distribution of high A-level scores are largely mapped to the independent sector and we're keen to draw students from the state sector," said Professor Reg Jordan, dean for undergraduate education at Newcastle University.

Professor Jordan said medical schools tended to make offers of two Bs and an A at A-level at the very least and this meant some very suitable potential doctors were not getting through.

"Under the current system they wouldn't get through the first phase of selection and we want to address that," he said.

"We are committed to widening participation in medicine."

Executive secretary of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools, Michael Powell, said medical schools were anxious to improve the way students were selected.

"We need better information than A-levels provide - they provide an indicator of academic performance, but medical schools want to know rather more about students' potential to be good doctors," said Mr Powell.

Standards row

Mr Powell and Professor Jordan dismissed reports that the psychometric tests were down to growing doubts about the value of A-levels as more and more students scored high grades, saying they were complementary to A-levels.

"A-levels will always be a part of selection - we have no evidence of a diminution of A-level standards," said Professor Jordan.

"But they measure past academic attainment, not a candidate's future potential as a doctor.

"We need a system which allows us to measure not just the academic, but the professional potential of the candidate."

The test trials come as research by the British Medical Association warns of a major shortage of general practitioners across the UK.