title: [Perception of medical students about formative assessments during clinical courses].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Formative evaluation is a range of formal assessment employed by professors during the teaching process in order to modify curriculum activities, to improve student attainment. For students, it is helpful to evaluate their learning process. Although recommended, it is seldom used.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the perception and performance of medical students subjected to formative assessments during an integrative clinical course.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourth year medical students that participated in a multiple choice formative assessment, similar to the final exam during 2007 and 2008, responded a survey about the usefulness and quality of such assessment. Student achievement was expressed as the percentage of correct answers of the tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The formative assessment was answered by 99% of students. In 2007 97% of students considered the experience as excellent or very good and 92% evaluated it as useful or very useful. During 2008 the figures were 89% and 79%. The students outlined that this assessment oriented their study, allowed them to discover their weaknesses and have a perception of the degree of difficulty of the final exam. Over 90% of students that took the formative evaluation, improved their academic achievement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Formative assessments are well evaluated by medical students and improve their academic achievement.
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Labarca
authors.forename: Catalina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Figueroa
authors.forename: Bárbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huidobro
authors.forename: Ana Cecilia
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Arnoldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riquelme
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moreno
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires