Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
Summary The examination performance of a cohort of clinical undergraduates has been scrutinized. The cohort was notable for a high failure rate at the university preclinical examination, but this failure rate did not reappear consistently in all four final clinical subjects. The assaying examinations were not only valid for their objectives, but also measured a range of other attributes. Multiple choice question papers scores detect both quantitative and qualitative differences in knowledge between the high and low fail risk candidates. The effect of A‐level grade is variable but is carried up to the final qualifying examinations. High performers tend to have good A‐levels. The contribution of the preclinical course to the clinical qualifying examination was small, varied between the preclinical subjects and also between the clinical subjects and two streams of students. It is shown that lack of an adequate standard in science subjects before entry to university is associated with subsequent disadvantage in clinical training. Such disadvantage could be reduced by an introductory premedical course. The contributions made by the differing educational experiences within the cohort could be detected in many of the examinations; in particular, poor performance at the end of first clinical year pathology multiple choice questions paper examination was associated with poor performance at finals. Failure in the first part of finals indicated a likelihood of further failure, factors such as sex and motivation are shown to affect multiple choice question performance whilst others such as work‐overload do not. The high risk fail candidates can be detected 2 years before finals and might be given special educational treatment designed to improve their chance of first time success as there is no efficient way of identifying them before acceptance into the medical school.
Summary The examination performance of a cohort of clinical undergraduates has been scrutinized. The cohort was notable for a high failure rate at the university preclinical examination, but this failure rate did not reappear consistently in all four final clinical subjects. The assaying examinations were not only valid for their objectives, but also measured a range of other attributes. Multiple choice question papers scores detect both quantitative and qualitative differences in knowledge between the high and low fail risk candidates. The effect of A‐level grade is variable but is carried up to the final qualifying examinations. High performers tend to have good A‐levels. The contribution of the preclinical course to the clinical qualifying examination was small, varied between the preclinical subjects and also between the clinical subjects and two streams of students. It is shown that lack of an adequate standard in science subjects before entry to university is associated with subsequent disadvantage in clinical training. Such disadvantage could be reduced by an introductory premedical course. The contributions made by the differing educational experiences within the cohort could be detected in many of the examinations; in particular, poor performance at the end of first clinical year pathology multiple choice questions paper examination was associated with poor performance at finals. Failure in the first part of finals indicated a likelihood of further failure, factors such as sex and motivation are shown to affect multiple choice question performance whilst others such as work‐overload do not. The high risk fail candidates can be detected 2 years before finals and might be given special educational treatment designed to improve their chance of first time success as there is no efficient way of identifying them before acceptance into the medical school.
The MFSEL system is designed to collect the data on entrants to the Glasgow medical course that was available to the Admissions Committee at the time of selection, and compare it with performance in medical school (and possibly later). The data collection has been made by the Admission Committee's secretary and the programming by a medical member with little previous experience and a minimum of professional help. Computing and data preparation costs have been low. Preliminary analyses indicate that selection has not been biased by the sex, class, or medical parenthood of entrants, and that the Scottish Sixth Year Studies examinations are a reliable predictor for student performance.
The principal use of computing in medical examinations is in the marking of MCQ papers. The computing problems in this are relatively straightforward, and the major difficulty lies in producing answer sheets in machine-readable form. The three main systems, hole-poking card, mark-sense cards and mark-sense sheets are discussed and compared in some detail. The possible establishment of a central service which will undertake computer marking for Britain is discussed briefly. A short account is given of a marking system recently introduced in Glasgow.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.