Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final professional examination: How it would impact the results
Introduction: Observing the dearth of distinctions in the two decades of final professional medical examinations (FPE) caused concern. Multiple True False (MTF) tests with penalty scoring pulling down the scores was considered one reason. Another possible reason was having too many subjects cove...
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my.unimas.ir.381762022-03-28T00:46:32Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38176/ Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final professional examination: How it would impact the results Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. Nariman, Singmamae Shazrina, Ahmad Razali Sabrina, Lukas Chai, Chee Shee Rahman, Md Mizanur L Education (General) Introduction: Observing the dearth of distinctions in the two decades of final professional medical examinations (FPE) caused concern. Multiple True False (MTF) tests with penalty scoring pulling down the scores was considered one reason. Another possible reason was having too many subjects covered in the MTF and Best Answer Question (BAQ) papers. This study aimed to explore the impact of dropping the non-core subjects with minimal inputs from MTF and BAQ papers and the students’ views in this regard. Materials and Methods: We examined the students’ performance in the core and non-core subjects in MTF and BAQ papers and the impact of dropping the non-core subjects’ contribution to the students’ scores of the recent four final professional examinations. We also surveyed the opinions of the students, who took the FPE in the year 2000. Results: The failure rates were significantly higher in noncore than core subjects (p < 0.001) except in one MTF paper. The mean scores were significantly lower in non-core than core subjects in all the four FPEs (p < 0.05) except in one MTF paper. Dropping the non-core subject items from MTF and BAQ showed an improvement in the scores of MTF, theory total, and most grand totals resulting in two more students reaching distinction status. A mere 3.8% of the students could thoroughly revise the non-core subjects before the FPE. Two-fifth of them believed that non-core subjects had a significant impact on theory performance. Only 31.5% favoured dropping the non-core subjects, and an equal number preferred a status quo, while the rest suggested a reduction in their weightage. Conclusion: Most of the students considered the non-core subjects important in their career. However, very few of them could revise these subjects for the professional examination. The study demonstrated that dropping the non-core subjects from MTF and BAQ improved the students’ final scores and helped more students to attain distinction status. Malaysian Medical Association 2022-03 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38176/1/Dropping%20the%20non-core%20-%20Copy.pdf Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. and Nariman, Singmamae and Shazrina, Ahmad Razali and Sabrina, Lukas and Chai, Chee Shee and Rahman, Md Mizanur (2022) Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final professional examination: How it would impact the results. Medical Journal of Malaysia, 77 (2). pp. 169-173. ISSN 0300-5283 http://www.e-mjm.org/ |
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L Education (General) Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. Nariman, Singmamae Shazrina, Ahmad Razali Sabrina, Lukas Chai, Chee Shee Rahman, Md Mizanur Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final professional examination: How it would impact the results |
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Introduction: Observing the dearth of distinctions in the two decades of final professional medical examinations (FPE)
caused concern. Multiple True False (MTF) tests with penalty
scoring pulling down the scores was considered one
reason. Another possible reason was having too many
subjects covered in the MTF and Best Answer Question
(BAQ) papers. This study aimed to explore the impact of
dropping the non-core subjects with minimal inputs from
MTF and BAQ papers and the students’ views in this regard.
Materials and Methods: We examined the students’
performance in the core and non-core subjects in MTF and
BAQ papers and the impact of dropping the non-core
subjects’ contribution to the students’ scores of the recent
four final professional examinations. We also surveyed the
opinions of the students, who took the FPE in the year 2000.
Results: The failure rates were significantly higher in noncore than core subjects (p < 0.001) except in one MTF paper. The mean scores were significantly lower in non-core than core subjects in all the four FPEs (p < 0.05) except in one MTF paper. Dropping the non-core subject items from MTF
and BAQ showed an improvement in the scores of MTF,
theory total, and most grand totals resulting in two more
students reaching distinction status. A mere 3.8% of the
students could thoroughly revise the non-core subjects
before the FPE. Two-fifth of them believed that non-core
subjects had a significant impact on theory performance.
Only 31.5% favoured dropping the non-core subjects, and an
equal number preferred a status quo, while the rest
suggested a reduction in their weightage. Conclusion: Most of the students considered the non-core subjects important in their career. However, very few of them
could revise these subjects for the professional
examination. The study demonstrated that dropping the
non-core subjects from MTF and BAQ improved the
students’ final scores and helped more students to attain
distinction status. |
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Article |
author |
Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. Nariman, Singmamae Shazrina, Ahmad Razali Sabrina, Lukas Chai, Chee Shee Rahman, Md Mizanur |
author_facet |
Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. Nariman, Singmamae Shazrina, Ahmad Razali Sabrina, Lukas Chai, Chee Shee Rahman, Md Mizanur |
author_sort |
Thomas, Puthiaparampil T. |
title |
Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: How it would impact the results |
title_short |
Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: How it would impact the results |
title_full |
Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: How it would impact the results |
title_fullStr |
Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: How it would impact the results |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: How it would impact the results |
title_sort |
dropping the non-core subjects from undergraduate final
professional examination: how it would impact the results |
publisher |
Malaysian Medical Association |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38176/1/Dropping%20the%20non-core%20-%20Copy.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38176/ http://www.e-mjm.org/ |
_version_ |
1729708059307016192 |
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13.160551 |