Students who took a pediatric elective scored significantly higher on pediatric examinations than those who did not. (Author/PG)

In a study of medical student testing, scores on two subjective measures, after a second-year clinical skills course and after the clerkship, were compared with each other and with scores from an objective structured clinical examination, two multiple-choice examinations, and two oral examinations. Correlation between procedures was absent or…

The authors report their findings concerning the process used to evaluate medicine clerks, specifically identifying the importance given to subjective evaluations, made by attending physicians, compared with the importance given to clerks' performances on objective means of evaluation based on written or oral examinations, whether national or…

Performance on patient management problems and multiple-choice questions was analyzed for candidates for American Board of Internal Medicine certification whose residencies had been problem-oriented, for candidates whose residencies had been classified as nonproblem-oriented, and for the national pool of U.S. medical graduates. (Author/MLW)

In standardized patient-based tests of clinical competence, patients are used to present the clinical problem and to rate the actions taken by the student. This approach is evaluated by a microanalysis of 1 case used in a fourth year clinical examination of 98 medical students at the University of Manitoba. (MLW)

The development, reliability, and validity of a practical examination to evaluate student attainment of course objectives in an externship program are described. Examination content was determined by surveying preceptors and suggestions from practicing pharmacists; the reliability was assessed by interrater agreement and internal consistency…

Some of the concepts and procedures of curricular design and student evaluation utilized by the clinical faculty within the PharmD program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City are described. Specific competencies, curriculum objectives, clinical review conferences, and verbal challenge examinations are appended. (LBH)

Describes a study of the clerkship in a department of pediatrics to generate data for individual instructors to help them improve or modify their instructional methodology if they so desire. (GA)

Students from two medicine rotations were assigned to experimental and control groups. Instruction was the same except that the control group was assigned required readings. The groups were compared in terms of their performances on a final written examination and on the National Board of Medical Examiners Part II examination. (Author/MLW)

An examination was developed by the Medical Skills Committee of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates to test the hypothesis that the clinical skills of many foreign medical graduates entering U.S. residencies are deficient. Thirty-two percent of the graduates were found to have inadequate clinical skills. (Author/MLW)

The development and use of a bank of test items, utilizing the Rasch model in the calibration and scaling of these test items, is described. The items were used to construct tests for pre- and posttesting students in the Pharmacy Practice Externship at the University of Kentucky. Typical questions from the bank are appended. (JMD)

Faculty from 5 New England medical schools developed 36 patient cases representing a variety of common ambulatory-care problems. Students were tested by interacting with 16 different standardized patients, who were nonphysicians trained to accurately and consistently portray a patient in a simulated clinical setting. (Author/MLW)

The Technological Innovations in Medical Education (TIME) model, designed to be controlled by a professor in the classroom, incorporates voice recognition technology and video dramatization to create a believable patient encounter. A field test finding was that the students became committed to the care and management of the simulated patient.…

A survey of four classes of third-year dental students identified six top stressors: examinations and grades, graduation requirements, inconsistency of professors' feedback, patient tardiness or no-show, atmosphere created by clinical faculty, and financial responsibilities. Also, 15 of 38 stressors were rated moderately or extremely stressful by…