Qualifying examinations are an important milestone in geoscience graduate programs, but students with marginalized identities are disproportionately lost from graduate programs around the time of ...these exams. Inequity in qualifying exams can enter at multiple stages throughout the exam design, student mentorship experience, exam administration, and post exam feedback. Therefore, robust assessment is necessary when building an equitable examination. We provide concrete suggestions for graduate programs to evaluate and modify their qualifying examinations. The data‐driven and iterative process encourages graduate programs to outline specific expectations for success, employ best‐practice pedagogy, proactively support students, and use data to measure progress and inform changes in the examination.
Plain Language Summary
In most geoscience graduate programs, students are required to pass a qualifying examination to demonstrate their ability to successfully complete a PhD. These examinations vary in structure and content across programs. However, there are often concerns over the value and equity of these examinations. In this paper, we provide an outline of concrete steps geoscience graduate programs can take to begin ensuring that the outcomes and experiences students have with the qualifying examination are equitable. The recommendations span many aspects of the exam including the design, support for students preceding the exam, administration of the exam itself, and feedback and assessment activities after the exam. Most importantly, the proposed process is iterative and data‐driven, meaning that graduate programs can continually refine and make changes to qualifying examinations based on outcomes and experiences.
Key Points
Qualifying exams in the geosciences are an understudied yet potentially important failure point for retention of underrepresented students
The design and implementation of the qualifying exam should be done in a data‐driven and iterative way to ensure equity in outcomes
Graduate programs should be specific in their definition and communication of a successful exam outcome with students
Vascular surgery trainees participate in the vascular surgery in-training examination (VSITE) during each year of their training. Although the VSITE was developed as a low-stakes, formative ...examination, performance on that examination might correlate with the pass rates for the Vascular Surgery Board written qualifying examination (VQE) and oral certifying examination (VCE) and might, therefore, guide both trainees and program directors. The present study was designed to examine the ability of the VSITE to predict trainees' performance on the VQE and VCE.
All first-time candidates of the Vascular Surgery Board VQE and VCE were analyzed from 2016 to 2020, including those from both the integrated and independent training pathways. VSITE scores from the final year of training were associated with the VQE scores and the probability of passing the VQE and VCE both. Linear and logistic regression models were used to determine the ability of VSITE results to predict the VQE scores and the probability of passing each board examination.
VSITE scores available for the 559 candidates (69.3% male; 30.7% female) who had completed the VQE and 369 candidates (66.7% male; 33.3% female) who had completed both the VQE and the VCE. The linear regression model results for the final year of training showed that the VSITE scores explained 34% of the variance in the VQE scores (29% for the integrated and 37% for the independent trainees). Logistic regression demonstrated that the final year VSITE scores were a significant predictor of passing the VQE for both integrated and independent trainees (P < .001). A VSITE score of 500 during the final year of training predicted a VQE passing probability of >90% for each group of candidates. The probability of passing the VQE decreased to 73% for candidates from integrated programs, 61% for candidates from independent programs, and 64% for the whole cohort when the score was 400. The VSITE scores were a significant predictor of passing the VCE only for the candidates from independent programs (odds ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.02; P < .01), for whom a VSITE score of 400 correlated with an 82% probability of passing the VCE.
VSITE performance is predictive of passing the VQE for trainees from both integrated and independent training paradigms. Vascular surgery trainees and training programs should optimize their preparation and educational efforts to maximize performance on the VSITE during their final year of training to improve the likelihood of passing the VQE. Further analysis of the predictive value of VSITE scores during the earlier years of training might allow the board certification examinations to be administered earlier in the final year of training.
General Surgery residency programs are evaluated on their American Board of Surgery (ABS) Qualifying examination (QE) and Certifying examination (CE) pass rates. This systematic review aims to ...evaluate predictive factors of ABS QE and CE first time pass rates.
Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, the following electronic databases were searched: PubMed, Embase, JAMA Network, and Google Scholar. Studies available in the English language published between January 2000 and July 2020 were deemed eligible. Articles that did not assess either of the ABS board examinations performance and pass-rates as outcomes were excluded. The Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine was used to determine the quality and risk of bias of each study.
A total of 31 publications were included for analysis. Undergraduate medical education variables associated with first-time pass rates on the QE and CE include USMLE score, AOA membership, and class rank. Program factors affecting pass rates include program size, geographic location, and Program Director turnover. There is strong correlation between ABSITE and QE. Evidence supports the utility of mock oral examinations (MOEs) in predicting CE success.
ABSITE scores demonstrated higher correlation with QE pass rate than CE pass rate. MOEs have a positive association with first-time CE pass rates. Nonmodifiable factors such as race/ethnicity, marital status, and geographic location were also found to be predictors. Delaying board certification examination beyond 1 year after residency graduation significantly reduces first-time pass rate.
American Board of Surgery examination performance represents an important residency metric. The hypothesis is that demographic differences exist between the most and least successful programs.
This ...was a retrospective fifteen-year study. Data focused on program Examination Index (EI). The first and tenth decile programs were compared across demographics, using an α = 0.05.
The first decile had a higher EI than the tenth decile (91.0% ± 2 .6% vs 51.4% ± 5.4% p < 0.001). The first decile programs were larger (p = 0.001). The first decile had more military and academic programs, with fewer community programs (p = 0.01). More first decile programs were in the West with fewer in the Northeast (p = 0.02).
There are clear differences in ABS examination performance based on program size, type, and location. These results essentially perform a national needs-assessment, and may evoke a spirit of competition and collaboration.
•Residency performance on the board examinations was evaluated over 15 years.•There are significant outcome differences between first and tenth decile programs.•Program size, location, and type are significant multiple regression outcome variables.•This study shows a rank list of all of the established residency performance in the US.•Study results have important implications for applicants and residency programs.
In this study, the long-term performance on the American Board of Surgery examinations was examined for established residency programs, focusing on the first and tenth decile of residency program performance. First decile programs were more likely to be larger programs, have a higher percentage of military distinction, more likely to be in the West, and had a lower percentage of international medical graduates. Demographic differences were also seen nationally. This study essentially performed a national needs-assessment, and the results could potentially evoke a competitive spirt of the “gamification” of examination performance, as well as a collaborative spirit with regard to these high-stakes examinations.
What are the prospects for internationalised legal education in the contemporary UK? Our reflections on this question were prompted by three relatively recent publications dealing with a variety of ...aspects of the internationalisation of legal education, as well as discussions in and outputs from "Brexit and the Law School" events in Liverpool Law School, Keele University, Strathclyde University, and Northumbria University during 2017. We argue that, although law is often assumed to be state based and jurisdiction specific, there are significant reasons to internationalise legal education but that in the current climate of Brexit, marketisation of higher education and the Solicitors Qualifying Examination such internationalisation is under threat.
Whether the teaching and assessment of practical legal skills and professional conduct should be focused at the academic or vocational stage of legal education has been considered numerous times, ...with recommendations made and varying degrees of implementation carried out. With the approval of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination being granted by the Legal Services Board this issue is once again being brought into focus. The end of the Legal Practice Course will result in the required compulsory teaching and assessment of core practical legal skills and professional conduct being removed from legal education. The question therefore is whether legal education should incorporate practical legal skills and professional conduct into teaching and assessment at the academic stage and, if so, how can this be achieved in a way that complements rather than distracts from the study of academic law. This study will consider the recommendations made in relation to practical legal skills and professional conduct over the last five decades and identify possible options for the embedding of practical legal skills and professional conduct in the law curriculum at undergraduate level.
Resumen Este trabajo analiza la relación entre los resultados del examen de habilitación profesional a graduados de medicina en Ecuador en 2017 y las condiciones socioeconómicas de los examinados. Se ...describen las variables involucradas en el instrumento de medición y los hallazgos por medio de estadísticos descriptivos, que muestran que los estudiantes provenientes de universidades privadas y cofinanciadas mantienen promedios significativamente más altos que los estudiantes de universidades públicas. Se considera también la trayectoria académica familiar como aspecto favorable para el éxito académico y profesional, medido en el nivel educativo del jefe del hogar. Se encuentra que la mayoría de graduados de medicina no son titulados de primera generación que ha accedido a la universidad, lo que podría ya determinar su éxito en la titulación con respecto a sus pares, en una de las tres carreras de más demanda en el país.
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