title: Evaluation of students' performance and examination procedures in final certifying examinations in internal medicine (1982-1988).
abstract: We conducted a retrospective analysis to evaluate the performance of 459 students on their final certifying examination in internal medicine. These examinations were taken during 1982 through 1988, and the failure rate was 17.6%. Two hundred and five students (44.6%) received grade D (60-69% of the total marks) and 139 (30.1%) grade C (70-79% of total marks). Only 7.7% of the students scored higher (80% or more). A temporal trend has been observed in that a higher percentage of lower grades and lower percentage of higher grades has been observed in recent (1986-1988) compared with earlier (1982-1984) years. Female students generally performed on a par with males, though males students performed better on multiple choice questions (MCQs). The analysis also showed lower mean scores for the essay, oral, and clinical components in recent (1986-1988) than in earlier (1982-1984) years. In studying the interrelationships between different examination components, the MCQs were found to have the highest correlation with other procedures. A lower correlation was observed for clinical examination. Factor analysis also showed that MCQs had the highest and clinical examinations the lowest factor loading. Low correlation and factor loading were also noted for the essay portion. While in the newly implemented curriculum the essay paper has been wisely eliminated, our data suggest that the traditional clinical examination should be replaced by a more objective and structural method. Our analysis may serve as a guide for formulation of final certifying examinations in medical schools throughout the Kingdom.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, King Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Al-Idrissi
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Al-Freihi
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Al-Gindan