Formative assessments

Throughout different stages of the course, you will be set formative assessment activities. The purpose of formative assessments is to provide you with opportunities to familiarise yourself with the course content and to support you in identifying any deficits in your learning/knowledge at the earliest opportunity. Completion of these tasks is monitored to ensure engagement with the course (see section 11) but also to provide additional support (if needed). Guidance on the formative assessments and feedback process can be found in the policies, procedures and processes section of the MB ChB Moodle home page. Specific information about course formative assessments is published in your cohort and phase assessment pages.

Summative assessments

In each phase of the course, you will be required to successfully complete a number of written and clinical summative examinations. Specific information about phase examinations including dates, times and locations will be published in your cohort and phase assessment pages. The content of the examinations may cover any material previously taught during the course as each phase builds upon knowledge and skills covered in previous years.

Permitted question types

Currently a range of assessment methods are used including written Short Answer Questions (SAQs), Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and written reports and reflections. Written examinations are usually computer based unless otherwise noted. Clinical assessments include Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and Objective Structured Long Examination Record (OSLERs). More specific information including the types of assessments for the course's different stages is published in your cohort and phase assessment pages. All students will be required to sit the UKMLA in their final year of the course.

Examination conditions

Section 10.2 of University Regulation 10 specifies the University general examination regulations.

The MB ChB Examinations Team will normally inform students in writing of the time, place and length of the written and the clinical examinations which occur at the end of the year. Provisional dates will be published on Moodle via Phase assessment pages at the beginning of the academic year. Once WMS and/or the central university has confirmed the summative assessment dates, students will be notified.

Disability or illness

If you are suffering from a permanent or temporary disability, illness or other condition that will require special arrangements for the assessment of your course (e.g. extra examination time) you are advised to contact your personal tutor as soon as possible. You should also make an appointment to visit the university wellbeing support services who will make the necessary recommendations to the department based on your medical evidence. The deadline for receiving these recommendations is normally 6 weeks ahead of each examination diet. We will circulate information regarding these deadlines in due course. You may find it helpful to access information about the University Wellbeing Support Services which offer a range of support to students.

Alternative Examination Arrangement and Reasonable Adjustments

If you have a disability including any specific learning differences, temporary illness or other chronic medical condition(s) that could affect your ability to take examinations, please discuss this with your personal tutor in the first instance and then, if necessary, make an appointment with someone from the University Wellbeing Support Services team to discuss the requirement for alternative examination arrangements.

Any reasonable adjustments made are evidence based; students are required to supply appropriate and recent medical evidence, or, in the case of a specific learning difference such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, a full diagnostic assessment. The type of appropriate evidence required can be discussed with Disability Services or Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Where a disability is disclosed, and a recommendation has been received by the MB ChB examinations team from the University Wellbeing Support Services team we will take all reasonable steps to make appropriate adjustments.

Extra time is not permitted in clinical examinations such as OSCEs as they are designed and conducted to simulate clinical practice. They are also a test of competency.

Further information on disabilities and reasonable adjustments can also be accessed in the University’s Code of practice for disabled students.

Religious observance

If for reasons of religious observance, you may need some additional arrangements (e.g. earlier start to a clinical exam), please contact the examination team as soon as possible. You must fill out the religious observance form and submit it at least four weeks before the assessment. You may also find it helpful to contact the University Chaplaincy or one of the associated religious societies.

Absence from examinations

If you are unable to attend an examination for medical reasons then University regulation 12 applies. If for any reason a student is unable to attend an assessment, he/she should report the circumstances to the MB ChB Examinations Admin Lead not later than three days following the last day of his/her University Examination. The admin lead will notify the Chair of the MB ChB Course Progress Group who will in turn notify the Board of Examiners. All summatively assessed work is ineligible for self-certification unless otherwise stated. The appropriate Board of Examiners will consider all absences under Regulation 12.

University regulation 11 outlines definitions and the Procedure to be adopted in the event of academic misconduct in an examination or assessment. This regulation covers cheating in tests conducted under examination conditions and cheating and plagiarism in Essays, Dissertations, Reports and Other Assessed Work. In these Regulations ‘cheating’ means an attempt to benefit oneself or another, by deceit or fraud. This shall include reproducing one's own work or the work of another person or persons without proper acknowledgement.

If a candidate is suspected of plagiarism or cheating in any assessment or examination, this will be investigated by the University of Warwick process. If proven, the investigating committee will determine the penalty. It is likely that the penalty would be an ‘unsatisfactory’ grade in the assessment or examination at least but could be more severe.

Penalties applied in relation to plagiarism or cheating in assessments or examinations will be recorded on the student file. Where incidents of cheating or plagiarism have been proven, the investigating committee may refer cases it considers appropriate to the University Discipline Committee and/or the WMS Fitness to Practise committee (Regulation 34).

Access University level guidance to make sure that your work always meets Warwick’s expectations of academic integrity.

Marking of Written Assessments

MCQs are marked by a scanner using optical mark recognition (OMR), or via our online assessment tool.

For SAQs, a panel of academic and clinical staff will convene to undertake the marking of the questions.

• The panel membership shall be chosen to reflect a wide range of disciplines and specialties.
• Marking will normally be undertaken on prescribed days.
• A detailed marking scheme will be available to markers for each question they are requested to mark.
• Team marking will be followed by a moderation process. The outcome of this process will be scrutinised by the external examiner(s) who is/are present at the decision-making Examination Board. Scripts of those candidates deemed to be “Unsatisfactory” by the Board and required to withdraw from the course will be reviewed in order to ensure that marking has been carried out according to the protocols in place for the examination.
• For paper based assessments, the invigilators present at the assessment will remind students that they must put their university number at the top of the front sheet of the question paper and on the MCQ answer grid so that their work can be marked and credited.
  
  Students should be aware:
  • That all reasonable efforts will be made by the Medical School to identify scripts without a university number so that they may be marked and marks allocated correctly.
  • That scripts without a university number may not be marked.
  • That in each case of an unidentified script, the Examination Board will make an individual decision based on the evidence it has laid before it.

Marking of Clinical exams (OSCEs and OSLERs)

In an OSCE students rotate around stations. At each station the student will be asked to perform a task, which is assessed, usually by direct observation. There will be a formative OSCE at the End of Block 2 in Year 1. Stations will be chosen to reflect the range of learning outcomes covered at the course stage and will include:

Clinical History and other Communication skills:

• Physical examination
• Practical procedures
• Data interpretation: e.g. ECG, Biochemical and other Laboratory results, Radiological investigations, epidemiological data.
• Clinical Anatomy Stations
• Other tasks as appropriate to the curriculum.
• ‘Rest’ stations may be included for organisational purposes.

Marking guidelines shall be produced for each station, prior to the OSCE taking place, for use by examiners.

Grading of Written Assessments

The MB ChB Assessment Group will determine the threshold for passing each component of the written and clinical exams to be recommended to the Board of Examiners. Students deemed to have failed any element of the written or clinical examination component will be required to re-sit that entire component.

The award of the grade Satisfactory for the written examination depends upon the total mark achieved across the entire component. The threshold for a Satisfactory grade for the written component of the examinations is derived using an established standard setting procedure which considers the difficulty of the exam.

Grading of Clinical Assessments

The award of the grade Satisfactory for the OSCE depends on the number of stations passed. The pass mark for individual stations is derived using an established standard setting procedure. To attain a grade of Satisfactory students must pass a specified number of stations which is determined by the Examination Board based upon recommendations made by the MB ChB Assessment Group. The award of the grade Satisfactory for the OSLER depends on the number of penalty points accrued across all assessed cases. The threshold is derived using an established standard setting process. In addition to the station/penalty point thresholds, WMS Domains span all clinical examinations and students are required to achieve a pass mark in all assessed domains. Domains are marked against pre-established grade descriptors.

Board of Examiners

The MB ChB Board of Examiners is responsible to the Board of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine at Warwick for oversight of assessments in each course phase, for the verification of pass lists, and for the recommendation of students who should be awarded merit or distinction at each phase and the MB ChB and MB ChB with honours. It may also recommend a variety of actions that may be taken should a student be unsatisfactory at any progression point (i.e. summative examinations or fulfilment of engagement criteria).Mitigating circumstances are presented to the Board of Examiners through the Chair of the Course Progress Group

The membership is governed by University of Warwick Regulation 9

Publication of Results

In order to remain compliant with GDPR, all assessment and examination results and awards are released anonymously via Data Reveal on the Warwick web pages. When students log in to the relevant web page on 'pass list day', they will see their own results but will not have access to anyone else’s.

Feedback

Face to face feedback is available to those students deemed unsatisfactory and will be delivered in a timely manner. Individual electronic feedback on performance in the summative examinations will be normally provided within 2 working days following the release of the results.

Second sit arrangements

Students deemed unsatisfactory in any written or clinical examination will be considered by the Board of Examiners. The Board of Examiners will make a recommendation in accordance with regulation 8.10. Full information on remedying failure is set out in the policy on the right to remedy failure.

Student Academic Appeals procedure

Appeals against the decisions of the Board of Examiners shall be considered in accordance with Regulation 42. Information on the University appeals process can be found here. If you considering submitting an appeal please discuss this with the student support team.

External examiners offer impartial and independent advice, as well as informative comments, on the university’s standards and on student achievement in relation to those standards. They also comment on whether students have the opportunity to achieve standards beyond the threshold level.

External examiners are required by the University of Warwick to provide assurance that:

• the academic standards of its assessments and awards are appropriate,
• standards at Warwick are comparable with those of other higher education institutions,
• assessment processes are fair and appropriate
• to offer advice on good practice and opportunities for enhancement

External examiners preview and provide comments on both written and clinical summative assessments for each of the phases of the course, and also on electives and student selected components within the course. They will comment on the standards (difficulty) of the examinations and also on the breadth of the examinations i.e. do the examinations blueprint well to the learning outcomes and cover a full range of material.

Where possible, they attend the summative clinical assessments that students complete to observe process, examiners and students – external examiners are not, however, assessing students but are checking the examinations process. For example, they may comment on organisation of the examination, whether examiners are adhering to marking guidance or whether simulated patients behave consistently across different candidates. During these assessment days they also aim to meet with a sample of students who are completing the assessments in order to gain some insight into students’ experiences and perceptions of the assessment process. They comment on students’ feedback in their report provided to the school. They provide us with suggestions for enhancement and they highlight to us where they have identified elements of good practice.

External examiners attend the Board of Examiners meeting after assessments have been completed. They have access to student scripts and assessment materials so that a report can be made to the Board of Examiners on the standard and the application of the marking schemes i.e. are we marking fairly and in accordance with the criteria set. They provide particular scrutiny to the examination materials of any student who may be deemed ‘borderline’ or ‘unsatisfactory’.

They are asked to ensure that the Board of Examiners is conducted fairly, that borderline cases are considered appropriately and consistently and that mitigating circumstances are considered appropriately by the Board. They provide an annual report to the University and this report is considered by the Education Quality Team and MB ChB assessment group, who then respond to the examiner’s comments and suggestions.

There is an expectation that students will complete their studies within an absolute maximum time period from their initial registration, regardless of individual circumstances, to ensure the currency of their knowledge, their competency and the quality of their degree. To that effect, please be aware of the following:

• The normal period of registered study for the MB ChB program is six years.
• Periods of temporary withdrawal or suspension are included within the maximum periods stated.
• In addition, a student is not allowed to take more than three years to complete teaching and assessment, that would normally be completed within one year,
• International students seeking to extend their visa should contact the university immigration team for advice.
• The Maximum Period of Study Policy will apply to students joining the University from the 2022/23 academic year

When you successfully complete your course of study you will be eligible to receive a degree certificate and transcript from the University of Warwick.Your certificate will bear the University name, crest, and the title of your award.It will be signed by the University’s Vice-Chancellor and Registrar. You will also receive a transcript of results.

You can order replacement degree certificates or authorised copies of certificates via the Awards and Ceremonies web pages.You may also request additional transcripts by contacting the medical school directly.Please note that there is a fee for this service.

The General Medical Council (GMC) recognises your university degree as a primary medical qualification (PMQ). This is important because, provided there are no concerns about your fitness to practise, a PMQ entitles you to provisional registration with the GMC for a licence to practise medicine in the UK.

UK medical students graduating in the academic year 2024-25 and onwards will need to pass the MLA as part of their medical school degree, before they can join the medical register. The MLA is a two-part assessment made up of an applied knowledge test (AKT) and a clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA). The MLA will test what doctors are likely to encounter in early practice and what’s essential for safe practice. The MLA will be part of the requirements for your degree; if you pass the MLA but don't meet the other requirements set by your medical school for your degree, you won’t be able to graduate. You can find out more about the MLA for UK students at http://www.gmc-uk.org/mla.

Provisionally registered doctors can only practise in approved Foundation Year One posts: the law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of work. To obtain a Foundation Year One post you will need to apply during the final year of your undergraduate programme though the UK Foundation Programme Office selection scheme, which allocates these posts to graduates on an informed allocation basis. Further information can be found on the UKFP website. All suitably qualified UK graduates have found a place on the Foundation Year One programme, but this cannot be guaranteed, for instance if there were to be an increased number of competitive applications from non-UK graduates.

Successful completion of the Foundation Year One programme is normally achieved within 12 months and is marked by the award of a Certificate of Experience. You will then be eligible to apply for full registration with the General Medical Council. You need full registration with a licence to practise for unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK.