Growth Mindset and Grit as Predictors of Licensure Examination Results

Though intelligence is vital for passing a licensure examination, certain measures of personality were deemed equally important as intelligence. This quantitative study examined growth mindset and grit to determine its predictive role in licensure examination results across several fields of profession. Data were collected via an online survey to 1,157 participants through crowdsourcing of examinees who recently participated in the 2019-2020 licensure examinations. Findings revealed a low relationship between growth mindset and grit of passers and deemed as independent constructs for every field of profession, yet controlling the number of attempts until passing the exam revealed a high relationship of increasing levels of growth mindset and grit. Average passing scores were also found to be inversely related to growth mindset and grit with respect to the frequency of attempts. Dissonance was observed in failed examinees with high levels of growth mindset but cast poor grit levels. The study concluded that licensure examination passers used a growth mindset and grit as an advantage over their intelligent peers. Though intelligence is an important construct for passing a licensure examination, the current study testified that growth mindset and grit were personality features that also predict the likelihood of success and failure in licensure examinations, especially for examinees not gifted with superb levels of intelligence. It was recommended to probe into other personality measures hindering the development of grit despite the growing mindset.