Examination Administration
Examinations will be given at the time and date established by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee.
- Students must be seated in their designated seats prior to the published examination time.
- Testing and Evaluation Services (TES) shall be responsible for identifying those students late for seating. TES shall report all late students to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee immediately following the examination.
- Students found out of compliance with this procedure will be subject to disciplinary action
- Students who arrive late to an examination will receive no additional time to take the examination. They will be required to stop taking the examination at the published stop time.
- For the first late arrival to an examination in a semester, a student will lose 10% of the total number of raw points on the exam.
- After the first late arrival to an examination in a semester, a student will receive a 0 (zero) % for any subsequent examinations to which he/she arrives late in that semester.
- Students who receive testing accommodations will have an examination start and stop time determined by the Center for Academic Performance (CAP).
Examination Construction
The timetable for examination construction is established by the Course Director.
Examination Scoring and Re-Scoring Protocol
Standard procedures will be followed for scoring and re-scoring objectively scored classroom examinations and quizzes. However, it remains the singular responsibility of Course Directors to determine and assign grades to students.
- Score the exam/quiz.
- Review the item analysis and applicable student comments.
- Identify miss-keyed items by re-checking the key and also by examining the item. Correct the key.
- Determine if there are flawed test items such as, but not limited to, items with more than one correct answer, no correct answer, or reasons accounting for poor statistical performance. These items will be eliminated from the exam as a scorable item.
- Re-score the exam.
- Distribute scores to students.
Examination Security
- Testing services will provide proctors for examinations.
- Examinations will be taken on computer via ExamSoft to assure security of the exams.
- Quizzes will be taken on computer or iPads via ExamSoft.
- Students will not be allowed to use electronics during exams or quizzes.
- Electronic devices will not be allowed out during reviews of exams or quizzes.
- Having electronic devices out during reviews can result in a non-professional conduct report.
- Students taking an exam or quiz receive a cover page that allows them to acknowledge:
- awareness that testing materials are owned by or licensed to the college and that any form of copying of these materials is prohibited.
- that they will not reproduce testing materials without the expressed consent of the college.
- that they will not distribute, or communicate in any form, to students at other medical schools or to any other persons.
- that the college will take any reasonable action to ensure the security of testing materials.
- all faculty, staff and students are responsible for providing disclosure to the Office of Student Affairs for any known violation of this procedure.
Failed Examinations
Any student who fails an examination will be contacted by CAP for academic counseling. Students may also be contacted by the curriculum director, course director, associate dean, advisory college director, or the clerkship program director for academic counseling. Failure to respond to a request for a meeting for academic counseling by the deadline stated will result in a nonprofessional conduct report.
- TES will provide notification of a student’s examination failure to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee in compliance with FERPA.
Make-up Examinations
Students are expected to take course exams on the date and time established by the course director or on the course syllabus. In extraordinary circumstances students may be approved to take make‐up exams on an alternate date or time.
- Students may request approval to make up course exams missed due to an approved absence, if sanctioned by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee.
- Requests based on an excused absence, including observance of a religious holy day, must be submitted to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee at least five (5) days before the date of the regularly scheduled exam.
- Requests for absence due to illness or injury must be supported by documentation from a licensed health care provider that specifies the date the medical leave begins, the date the medical leave ends, and whether any or no restrictions to activities are present.
- Documentation for extraordinary absences will be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his designee.
- Significant family issues.
- HSC Representative to meeting or presenting abstract or poster at meeting.
- Student must be passing with 80% or better in all courses to be approved.
- Make-up exams may be scheduled prior to or after a regularly scheduled exam. The time and date for a make-up exam will be determined by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or his/her designee and TES.
- Students missing a regularly scheduled exam due to a religious holy day will be subject to UNT Health Science Center (UNTHSC) Policy 07.103 (Absence for Religious Holiday). In all other cases, students may take a maximum of two (2) make-up exams in a semester, or three in one year, without penalty. Any additional make-up exams will result in a reduction of 10% of the total number of raw points on the exam.
- Students who miss a course examination without an approved absence or documented illness will not be permitted to take a make-up exam and will receive a 0% (zero) grade for the examination.
National Board Examinations
All medical students are required to take Level I of the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX), the examination administered by the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME), upon completion of the second year of the medical curriculum. All students are required to pass Level I (per the minimums established by the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners) for promotion to the third year. Students who do not pass Level I must appear before the Student Performance Committee (SPC). SPC may recommend re-examination. If allowed to re-test, students will then continue in the third year classification on a provisional basis pending results of the second examination. Medical students must pass COMLEX Level I to continue in clinical clerkship rotations. A student who does not achieve a passing score, as determined by the NBOME, may be dismissed from UNTHSC. All students are required to take and pass COMLEX I, COMLEX II-CE and COMLEX II-PE in order to graduate. Students who do not pass COMLEX I, COMLEX II-CE or COMLEX II-PE must appear before SPC. Students may have a second opportunity to take the test. Students who are unsuccessful on the second try may be dismissed from TCOM.
- Students who take and pass COMLEX 1, COMLEX 2PE, or COMLEX 2CE exam and passes will continue with core clinical rotations.
- Any student who takes COMLEX 1, COMLEX 2PE or COMLEX 2CE exam and fails will go before SPC and stop core clinical rotations. If allowed to repeat then the student will retake the exam and continue with rotations and await exam results. If the student fails a second time, he/she will stop rotations and go before SPC for a recommended outcome. If the recommendation is for dismissal, the student may appeal to the Dean of TCOM.
- Any student who fails a COMLEX 1, COMLEX 2PE or COMLEX 2CE exam on 3 occasions shall be recommended for dismissal.
Post-Exam
- Exams will be scored and the following reports will be provided to the Course Director within 1 business day of the exam:
- Item Analysis - will show entire question and answer choices along with the class performance on each question.
- Summary Report -
- Assessment performance data - average score, lowest and highest score
- Histogram - graphical representation of how the entire class performed
- Assessment Score Reliability (KR-20)
- Category Performance - graphical representation of how the low, average, and high performs on the exam performed in each category
- At Risk Students - lowest 27% scorers
- Question Performance - condensed view of item analysis
- Category Report - will show the class performance on each identified category
- Testing and Evaluation Services (TES) will deploy the “Strengths and Improvement Opportunities” report for each student following each exam to provide them with feedback targeting areas of improvement. This report contains the following features:
- Student’s score and class average
- Category performance:
- Shows student performance and class average by category
- Identifies how many items the student got correct out of all items on the exam
- Identifies areas where the student has opportunities for improvement:
- Green Triangle (Doing Well) = above class average and above 70% for category
- Yellow Circle (Needs Review) = (between 50-70% correct and above class average) or (scored below class average and above 70%)
- Red Triangle (Needs Improvement) = (scored below 50%) or (20%+ below class average)
- Students can use this report to focus their future studies.
- If students are required to meet with the CAP Office they will bring this report. This will be utilized by the Learning Specialists to assist the students in identifying areas that need improvement and aligning students with appropriate resources.
- In order to provide students with an opportunity to provide feedback to faculty about exam items, the “Notes” feature in ExamSoft will be utilized. Students will be able to electronically record notes on questions during the exam. After the exam, student feedback will be compiled for each exam item. Per Curriculum Director’s request, feedback will be provided for either all question items or only items that performed less than 70% This student feedback report will be provided within TWO business days of the exam:
- The Course Director will use the exam reports and student feedback to identify exam items that need to be rescored. TES will rescore items which fall into the following areas
- If an item is keyed incorrectly, Course Director will provide TES the correct answer
- If an item is flawed (has no correct answer, multiple correct answers, contains an error(s) in the stem or answer, or resulted in extremely poor statistics) the Course Director will request that the question be removed from the exam, and the item will be returned to the author for editing.
- TES will re-score the exam with the changes provided and re-run exam reports. Exam Scores will be updated on Canvas and students will be notified that a change was made to the exam
Subject Exam and Comprehensive Exam
TCOM students must sit for comprehensive and subject examinations to fulfill graduation requirements and to assess competencies to practice osteopathic medicine.
- Subject examinations from the NBOME will be administered in core clinical clerkships for which these examinations are available. Assigned students must sit for the appropriate subject examination administered at the completion of each of their rotations. All students are required to take the subject examinations without prior determination that the course has been passed.
- If a student misses a shelf exam, he or she must re-schedule the exam with TES. TES will inform the Director of Clinical Education of the re-scheduled exam.
- Core Clerkship Subject Examinations will be graded and points will be added to each student’s score based upon the standard deviation of the national mean for that subject exam. A passing grade for each subject exam will be set at 70%.
- A student who fails a subject exam receives an incomplete in the course and must re-take the exam. The student must re-schedule the subject exam with TES. A second failure results in failure in the course, and the clinical clerkship must be repeated. A second failure of a subject exam, whether in the same rotation or a different rotation, requires an appearance before the TCOM SPC.
- The Office of Student Affairs notifies the student of the date and time to appear before the committee.
- The committee evaluates the evidence and makes a recommendation to the Chair of SPC (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs) who then conveys the decision in writing to the student through an official form of communication as recognized by UNTHSC and TCOM.
- The student may appeal the decision to the Dean of TCOM. Appeal must be made within five business days of receipt of the letter from the Chairman of SPC. The Dean’s decision regarding the appeal is final.
- Scores for subject exams are reported to students, TCOM administration, including the Dean of TCOM, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of Clinical Education, and the Office of Student Affairs.
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