From 1954 through 1993, the Joint College Entrance Examination (JCEE) was the only way to recruit medical students in Taiwan. Those who achieved high scores on this single examination were recommended for admission. An alternative method of admission via recommendation and screening (ARS) was introduced in 1994. This method required a recommendation from high school teachers and passing grades on the qualification screening examination. Qualified candidates are then allowed to take another mini entrance examination held by each medical school which covers subjects such as laboratory tests. An interview is also required. This is a retrospective preliminary comparison study between the students admitted to the College of Medicine, National Taiwan University through the above methods in terms of academic achievements and group learning response. The academic achievement was calculated as the total mean score of the courses weighed on credits. The comparison showed that the short-term academic achievements in the ARS group were slightly superior than the JCEE group in both basic medical science and humanities. However, the significance is not consistent across the different admission years. The results of the self-rating questionnaires of the group learning factors toward small group tutorial also showed that medical students in the ARS group had more positive attitude and higher motivation in interpersonal learning than the students in the JCEE group (F=4.22, p=0.049). Long-term follow-up and multivariate analysis should be conducted to determine the effects of the new admission method.