Using the analysis of summative assessments to characterize the capability of medical students: / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The best method of analyzing the overall ability of medical students is currently not known. However, we comprehensively analyzed summative assessments in order to characterize the capabilities of medical students.Method: In 2014, 97 medical graduates, who were attending a national medical school, were asked to complete a computer-based test, a pre-clinical clerkship objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), a post-clinical clerkship OSCE, clinical clerkship assessment sheets, repetition of the same grade and the national examination for medical practitioners. Results were analyzed using multivariate analysis.Results: In the principal component analysis, it was suggested that the first component indicates comprehensive academic achievement and the second component indicates engagement in clinical training. In the cluster analysis, clusters were classified by the values of the first and second components. In this analysis, the number of students who failed the national exam and repeated the same grade were significantly greater in each cluster.Discussion: This study demonstrates that the comprehensive analysis of summative assessments could be used to clarify the capabilities of medical students.