EVALUATION & GRADES
To obtain a passing grade, all of the following requirements must be met
1. Adhere to all applicable University of Virginia and School of Medicine codes of student conduct.
- You are on your honor to comply with all clerkship requirements as detailed herein.
2. Submit a properly completed Neurology Passport.
- see "Activities".
3. Receive a passing score on your OASIS Clerkship Student Evaluation.
- These are completed by your service attendings and residents.
- Any student who receives an overall grade of "marginal" or "unsatisfactory" from any evaluator will be asked to meet with the Clerkship Director to discuss and develop a remediation plan.
4. Attend at all required conferences and activities.
- see "Activities".
5. You must submit a completed "Student Evaluation of the Neurology
Clerkship" form in OASIS.
6. You must complete the Clerkship/Faculty Evaluation in OASIS
- These are our primary quality control measures; they ensure we are meeting your learning needs and teaching appropriately.
7. You must pass the local take-home Knowledge/Application exam in
Neurology with a score ³70%
8. You must pass the NBME "shelf examination" in Neurology
- A passing score is at or above the national 5th percentile (as defined by NBME for the time period from which the most recently available NBME percentiles were calculated. ).
- For more information on the neurology subject examination from the National Board of Medical Examinerssee http://www.nbme.org/programs-services/medical-schools/subject-examinations/clinical-science-disciplines.html
- It is a closed-book, tightly proctored test.
- The test is at a time (TBA) on the morning of the last day of the clerkship.
- Do not bring backpacks, pagers, cell phones etc. to the exam room.
- Use the bathroom before you enter the exam room.
Grades
The Clerkship Director will submit, via the OASIS system, a report to the Dean's office including written description of the student's clerkship performance. This may comment on professionalism, attendance, and compliance with clerkship's requirements as appropriate. It may include direct quotations from individual evaluators, summative assessments, qualitative statements, and formative feedback. Both strong points and weak points in performance may be included in the narrative. This will be delivered approximately 5-6 weeks after the conclusion of the clerkship.
Clerkship grades will be calculated as follows:
1. Clinical evaluations
a. Account for 60% of overall grade
b. Weighted by exposure and evaluator type
i. Attendings weight higher than residents
ii. PGY-1 evaluations are not included in this weighted calculation
iii. OASIS exposure descriptions by time
1. Extensive (x7)
2. Moderate (x3)
3. Minimal (x1)
c. Since OASIS defines Superior and Honors levels as
representing the top 20% of the class and uses UVa students
the benchmark, most students should expect to obtain a B
(typical performance). Only weighted scores of Superior or
Honors will qualify to receive an A
d. OASIS reports an unweighted arithmetic average of all evaluators and
may therefore vary from the final clerkship evaluation of clinical
performance.
e. The Clerkship Director will not override any individual evaluator's
determination of a student's performance for the purpose of grade
adjustments.
2. Knowledge/Application exam
a. 25% contribution to overall grade
b. Open-book multiple choice exam, subject to Honor Code standards
c. Usually about 50 case-based questions focus on course objectives
d. Minimum passing score is 70%
e. Among passing scores, actual percent correct rather than letter grade
equivalent will be used in the final grade calculation. However, a rough
approximation of letter grade equivalents on the test is as follows:
i. 94-100 = A
ii. 90-93 = A-
iii. 87-89 = B+
iv. 84-86 = B
v. 81-83 = B-
vi. 77-80 = C+
vii. 74-76 = C
viii. 70-73 = C-
ix. Scores lower than 70 receive no credit and require
remediation.
x. Adjustments (curve) will be applied if mean <81
xi. Item validity and discrimination analyses are performed on
all questions on all exam administrations.
1. Individual students' test scores will not be
adjusted on questions answered correctly
by ³50% of students on the test
administration in question.
2. Items answered correctly by <50% of students
on a test administration are NOT automatically
considered invalid
3. NBME shelf exam
a. 10% contribution to overall grade
b. Percentile based on national quarterly adjusted norms from prior
academic year
i. >80%ile = A
ii. 20-79%ile = B
iii. 5-19%ile = C
iv. Scores <5%ile receive no credit and require remediation
4. OVERALL GRADE:
a. To receive a passing grade in neurology, the student
i. Must pass NBME (³5th percentile)
ii. Must pass Neurology Knowledge/Application exam (³ 70%)
iii. Must pass clinical evaluations with weighted performance
above "marginal"
iv. Must complete all other clerkship requirements as noted in
the syllabus
b. If i.-iv. are met, then letter grade is calculated as follows:
i. Clinical grade weighted at 60%
ii. Knowledge Exam = 25%
iii. Shelf exam = 10%
iv. Homework/Class participation = 5%
c. Final letter grade will be determined solely by these criteria
d. Requests for grade adjustment after submission to the Dean's Office
can only be considered when there is evidence that erroneous or
incorrect data was used in calculation of the final grade.
If any of these requirements for a passing grade are not met, you must see the Neurology Clerkship Director immediately to discuss remediating the clerkship, in part or in total. The final remediation decisions are made by the Medical School's Student Promotions Committee, acting on the Clerkship Director's recommendation.