Performance of Undergraduate Medical Students in Formative and Summative Evaluations in Community Medicine in a Medical College in India

Abstract

Background: Assessment and evaluation should be a continuous activity associated with curriculum development. Continuous formative examinations are the stepping stone for good learning and better performance in summative examination. However, the correlation or predictability of formative examinations has not been quantified in the community medicine subject in the bachelor of surgery (MBBS) course in India. Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore the correlation of performance in continuous assessments and final summative evaluation in third-year professional MBBS students in community medicine and the predictability of formative scores for the final examination marks. Methods: An institution-based retrospective longitudinal study was conducted in the Medical College of Kolkata, India. A total of 237 undergraduate medical students were followed up for two years to track their results in three successive examinations. The scores obtained in formative and summative evaluations in third-year professional MBBS students in community medicine were analyzed to find out the correlation between them, and multiple linear regression was also performed in SPSS. Results: The strong and significant correlation (0.64) between the sixth semester and internal examination results suggests the importance of the sixth semester examination for the preparation of finals. The third semester examination, although conducted two years prior to the finals, still had significant correlation with the finals, but the correlation was weak (0.17). Conclusions: Formative examination in community medicine, which spans for overall three and half years, plays an essential role in the preparation of students for the finals, more so for achieving good scores. Performance in these two examinations can only explain more than one fourth of the variability of the performance in the finals.