Assessment

A guiding principle of the School of Medicine is that assessment drives learning. To this end, the school has incorporated into the educational program a comprehensive competency-based assessment system that includes numerous opportunities for an ongoing cycle of observation, feedback, and assessment of each student's developmental progress in achieving the educational program's explicit objectives and competencies. The overriding goal of the School's comprehensive assessment system is to assist students in becoming reflective practitioners of medicine who embrace lifelong learning opportunities and complement them with a critical approach to self-assessment and self-improvement.

Reflection, Integration, and Assessment, or RIA, Weeks

RIA weeks devoted to Reflection, Integration, and Assessment are included regularly throughout the curriculum. These RIA weeks occur at the end of every course during the First 100 Weeks and at the end of every 16-week cycle during the third year.

The majority of formative and summative assessment occurs within the span of these weeks. During the first two years, students complete summative short answer essay exams, a summative Structure practical, formative multiple choice questions, and they participate in a variety of standardized and simulated clinical encounters. The diagram depicts the structure of an RIA week during the First 100 Weeks. 

Highlights of the simulation and clinical skills assessment include:

• A longitudinal, developmentally appropriate clinical encounter station

• Focused communication stations

• Focused physical examination stations

• Team-based simulation station