Guidelines for the administration of oral examinations

Authors

• Mohammed M. Jan, Department of Pediatrics (Neurology), King Abdulaziz University Hospital, PO Box 6615, Jeddah 21452, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tel. +966 2 640 1000 Fax. +966 2 640 3975.
• Amira R. Al-Buhairi, Department of Internal Medicine, King Khalid National Guard Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Practical oral examinations are considered an important and often a difficult part of medical school examinations. They represent an accurate and direct mean of assessing student9s interaction with patients and their clinical and technical skills. This paper reviews an outline for the administration of oral examinations. The review is based on the medical literature detailed discussions with many senior examiners from different medical systems, and the author9s personal experience. In summary, although examiner9s judgment is crucial, some general rules remain important for fair and consistent evaluation of students. First, examiner9s attitudes should be as friendly as possible with an objective aimed to assess student9s medical competence and practical safety. Secondly, scoring should be based on a model answer or well-accepted medical practices for consistent rating. Finally, each examiner should give an independent score before discussing the final rating with the other examiners.

Article Type

Review

First Page

1013

Last Page

1015

Recommended Citation

Jan, Mohammed M. and Al-Buhairi, Amira R. (2000) "Guidelines for the administration of oral examinations," Saudi Medical Journal: Vol. 21: Iss. 11, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15537/1658-3175.1298