5.8 Doctor of Medicine - Assessment
For exceptions and further information to assessment, evaluations and appeals refer to: Policy for Student Evaluations: Development and Maintenance.
Scheduling of Examinations
Examinations are scheduled within regular class time except in those special cases where prior approval has been obtained from the Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Medical Education Office (UME).
Grading
The following grades/notations will be used by the Cumming School of Medicine for courses completed in the MD Program.
CR – Completed Requirements
RM – Remedial Work Required
GP - Grade Pending
F – Fail
Grades in a course are reported according to the grading scheme of the faculty offering the course, regardless of the faculty in which a student is registered.
Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory standing is used to assess each course. Students will be declared Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory in the complete (overall) evaluation. Students cannot be declared Satisfactory overall on some of the course evaluation components.
To obtain credit for a course, a student must be certified as satisfactory on the course evaluation by achieving a score at or above the passing threshold.
Results from Year 1 and 2 will be reported as either “Satisfactory” or “Unsatisfactory”.
Results from Year 3 will be reported as “Satisfactory”, “Unsatisfactory”, or “Satisfactory with performance deficiency".
Satisfactory: The student has met or exceeded the level of performance minimally acceptable for promotion. A satisfactory standing will appear on the transcript as "CR".
Unsatisfactory: The student has not met the minimum performance level for promotion. A student can also be deemed unsatisfactory in a situation where a serious professionalism breach has occurred. An unsatisfactory standing will be recorded on the student’s transcript as an “F”. A repeated course/rotation will be noted on the transcript with a different course number.
A student who receives an “unsatisfactory” standing will be given the opportunity to review their final examination result sheet with the examination key to aid in recognition of areas of deficiency and assist in planning remedial studies or to identify an error in the marking. Should a student feel that an error has occurred in the marking of an evaluation item, they may submit a Request for Academic Assessment Reappraisal (refer to section 5.9).
Satisfactory with performance deficiency: Used in Clerkship for the following situations.
Failure of one component of a clerkship evaluation with subsequent completion of required remedial work and satisfactory performance on rewrite of that component.
Overall rating of satisfactory performance in a clerkship rotation but with one or more specific areas of deficiency noted including professional and ethical behaviour.
A course/rotation signed-off as “Satisfactory with Performance Deficiencies” will appear as a credit ("CR") on the transcript.
Passing Threshold
The passing threshold for examinations and courses is established using one of two methods: Nedelsky technique or the Hofstee compromise methods as described in the following document: Policy for Student Evaluations: Development and Maintenance.
Distribution of Results
Results are available to students through Dolphin which can be accessed through the Central Authentication System (CAS). These results include the overall score and passing threshold for the exam.
Results are confidential. Individual student results will be made available to:
the student
the student’s permanent file
the office of the Associate Dean, UME
members of faculty committees responsible for student promotion and/or appeals
course chair and evaluation co-ordinator for relevant course or clerkship. Anonymized group evaluation results may be released to the course chair and evaluation co-ordinator for the relevant course and to faculty responsible for program evaluation in the Undergraduate Medical Education Program.
Individual student grades and class standings are not reported on student transcripts or provided as part of Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) applications.
Consequences of an Unsatisfactory Performance
Students should refer to the Student Evaluation Committee’s (SEC) Policy for Student Evaluation: Development and Maintenance for consequences of unsatisfactory performance in any given year of the MD Program.
Student File
The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education maintains a file for each student in the MD Program one academic file and one non-academic file. The file is a combination of Years 1 and 2 (Pre-clerkship) and Year 3 (Clerkship) academic documentation.
Refer to Student Files (MD Program) for further information.