Grades on the second medical licensing examination in Germany before and after the Licensing Reform of 2002: a study in two medical schools in Bavaria.
BACKGROUND
When the German national medical licensing regulations were changed in 2002, the second part of the medical licensing examination was supplemented with a practical component and expanded from one day to two. The aim of this study was to assess the written and oral-practical examination grades before and after the licensing reform.


METHODS
We compared the results that were obtained on the oral and written components of the second part of the national medical licensing examination under the old and new regulations (M2o and M2n, respectively) by a total of 2056 students at the Technical University (TUM) and Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) medical schools, both in Munich, from the spring of 2004 to the spring of 2008. We assessed the grades themselves as well as the correlation between the grades on the oral and written components before and after the reform.


RESULTS
Grades on the written component of the examination did not differ to any statistically significant extent before and after the reform (TUM: M2o 2.91+/-0.92, M2n 2.91+/-0.87. LMU: M2o 2.94+/-0.85, M2n 2.78+/-0.873). There was, however, a significant change in the oral examination grades (TUM: M2o 1.89+/-0.81, M2n 2.22+/-0.96; p<0.001. LMU: M2o 1.94+/-0.86, M2n 2.09+/-0.93, p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Additional analysis of the grades obtained before and after the reform reveals a significantly increased concordance between grades on the oral and written components of the examination.
Seyfarth
Melchior
M
Technische Universität München, Deutsches Herzzentrum. seyfarth@dhm.mhn.de
Reincke
Martin
M
Seyfarth
Julia
J
Ring
Johannes
J
Fischer
Martin R
MR
D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008007:Licensure, Medical / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013223:Statistics as Topic