Health sciences faculty members at a two-year college were concerned about the poor pass rates in medical terminology, a gateway course for all students planning to major in health-related fields. Faculty suspected that students coming out of developmental reading might not have adequate reading skills to do well in medical terminology. Developmental studies faculty undertook a project that compared students' grades in medical terminology during the fall 2009 semester with their COMPASS-R and ASSET Reading entrance scores and their final grades in developmental reading to determine if there was a relationship between students' reading ability and their success in medical terminology. Results revealed that developmental students who enrolled in medical terminology during fall 2009 failed or withdrew from the course at a higher-than-expected rate compared to regular- or transfer-admitted students.