Handbook > Policies > Exam/Grade/Evaluation Policies

Exam/Grade/Evaluation Policies

 

 

Exam Policy

Exams are offered only at designated times as set by the Systems Leaders/Principles of Medicine Committee. Exceptions for compassionate need or illness resulting in postponement of the exam are to be determined by the Office for Student Affairs (see Delay of Examinations for details). No student is permitted to take an examination before the regularly scheduled examination.

The Curriculum Committee unanimously approved a motion that all formal course examinations are required activities. Failure to take seriously the understanding and mastery of knowledge necessary for patient care should be recorded in the student’s file as a breach of professionalism (January 24, 2008).

Delay of Examinations

Examinations may be delayed only for reasons of illness, or under unusual circumstances for compelling personal reasons. In all instances, approval to delay an examination must be obtained from the Associate Dean for Student Affairs or their College Dean. Students who seek to delay an examination for medical reasons must also be seen by a physician, preferably at Student Health. When approval is given to delay an examination, it is the student's responsibility to schedule a time with the course or system director for the examination before the next exam, or in the case of final exams, before the start of the next semester.

Examination Areas

Paper exams are administered only at the following sites: Old Medical School Auditorium, Classroom C-1, Jordan Front Laboratories, Jordan Conference Center (if available), MEB lecture and learning studio (if available) and any open site in the library with exception of the two media centers. Exams are not to be worked on outside of these sites. On-line summative exams can be taken in the MEB Auditorium or in the Health Sciences Library. Exceptions for reasons of compassionate need, disability, or illness are to be determined by the Office for Student Affairs (e.g., College Dean).

Release of Exam Grades

Exam grades at the end of the semester can be released to students after the end of the last scheduled examination.

Final Grades/Evaluations

Helping students learn and improve their performance is the primary purpose of evaluations.

Grades for courses in the first 18 months should be provided to the student and Student Affairs within one week of the end of the exam period or by the date set by the Academic Standards and Achievement Committee. This is important for students and to allow for timely decisions on the part of the Academic Standards and Achievement Committee and for planning remediation when necessary.

Clerkships, selectives, and electives are required to submit evaluations within five weeks of the end of the rotation or by the date set by the Academic Standards and Achievement Committee. Clerkship grades and evaluations must be reported no later than noon on Friday of the 5th week after the close of the rotation or no later than noon on Friday of the 2nd week following receipt of subject exam scores. If grades and evaluations are not received in the Office for Student Affairs by noon on Friday as described above, notification will be sent to the responsible clerkship director, clerkship coordinator, and department chair.

Grade Challenge

After grades are issued, students may challenge a grade in writing within 1 week for courses in the first 18 months and within 4 weeks for clinical rotations to the appropriate course/clerkship director.

Evaluation Policy

Evaluations requested by the University of Virginia School of Medicine for feedback assessment concerning faculty, courses, clerkships, selectives, or electives as well as school-wide evaluations (e.g., AAMC Graduation Questionnaire) must be completed before graduation.

A comment from medical education on the use of evaluation data:

System and curricular data is confidentially collected from you in our efforts related to continuous program improvement. We value your feedback tremendously and use the data to adjust our educational program. At times we also use the data for medical education research, again in an effort to improve specific aspects of the curriculum and to further support student learning. Your name is never associated with these data, we look at it only in aggregate. It is your right to choose to not allow your data to be used for medical education research purposes, but only for internal curriculum evaluation. Please contact Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D. (434.243.6663 ejb4a@virgina.edu) if you wish to have your data removed from use in curriculum improvement studies.

Advancement Policy

Students must complete course or clerkship requirements before advancing to the next level. All preclinical courses and USMLE Step 1 must be completed prior to taking core clerkships. All core clerkship requirements must be completed before elective/selective credits can be earned.

 

 

BACK to Student Handbook