Assessment

Assessment of learning in the new Medicine program has been designed to support and direct student learning. Key features of the system include:

• An assessment system that is outcome or capability based, requiring students to demonstrate their ongoing development in the eight capability areas. Progression will not be based solely on satisfactory completion of individual courses, nor will it correspond solely to annual stages,
• A focus on assessment for learning, with learning tasks, carried out individually or in groups, forming a significant part of the assessment,
• Opportunities for formative assessment,
• Coarse grading of summative assessments, with repeated sampling. Most assessments are graded on a four point scale.
• Examinations that require students to integrate basic, clinical and social sciences; with no discipline-specific assessments,
• Assessment of clinical skills during clinical placements as well as in formal clinical examinations (performance assessments),
• A learning portfolio examination in each phase that requires students to collect evidence of their performances in specified areas of capability, select their best examples and submit these, together with a commentary on their learning, for review. In phase three this examination involves an oral defence.
• Grading systems which are criterion referenced, making the expected standards of performance clear and explicit to students and to examiners alike;
• Development of student autonomy in regard to assessment through involvement in some self and peer assessment, some negotiation of assignments and projects, and the process of selecting and reflecting on student's evidence for learning in the capabilities for the portfolio examinations.

These characteristics of the assessment scheme have been designed to encourage active learning and to support interdisciplinary integration.

Assessment Methods

A wide-range of appropriate assessment methods are used to ensure students have achieved the level of knowledge and skill required. Methods include:

• Assignments
• Group Projects
• Practical Exams
• Written exams with multiple choice, short answer and essay questions
• Objective structured clinical exams
• Verbal viva exams
• Short cases, long cases and focused clinical exams.
• Thesis (Independent Learning Project)