Stupid question about examinations in medical schools

I know Cambridge has the MVST in addition to the 2nd MB (which is required for your medical degree) that medical students have to worry about. Failing the MVST once would get you kicked out, but you can resit once if you fail the 2nd MB.

Do other medical schools have exams equivalent to the MVST? Or do they just sit their exams that qualify them for their medical degrees? I am guessing medical schools that have a compulsory intercalation year do?

I know Cambridge has the MVST in addition to the 2nd MB (which is required for your medical degree) that medical students have to worry about. Failing the MVST once would get you kicked out, but you can resit once if you fail the 2nd MB.

Do other medical schools have exams equivalent to the MVST? Or do they just sit their exams that qualify them for their medical degrees? I am guessing medical schools that have a compulsory intercalation year do?

I think the Tripos exams are kind of unique to Cambridge in a sense.

Would you say essays in medical exams are unique to Cambridge?

Southampton has essays, 3 (sort of) in finals and 2 a year during the early years (but not in exams).

The ones in finals are a referral letter, an ethical scenario essay and a critical appraisal. Fun! :|

The ethical scenario essay does sound rather fun actually.

Unfortunately Cardiff don't do essays for exams either - it's normally just single best answer questions, and I think that's the same for most medical schools.

Are all med schools increasingly using single best answer rather than multiple choice?

"All 5 of these options are correct, but which one is MOST correct...?"

I used to find SBAs frustrating, but thinking about it now, I think with MCQs you can sometimes guess the right answer through elimination, whereas with SBAs you do need to have a bit more knowledge to be able to pick the correct answer.

Oxford has them so no.

I don't think many other med schools do, excepting for BScs where writing a dissertation is common.

Do you feel that essays have made you a better doctor/scientist than your colleagues who went to a medical school with little to no essays?

Do you feel that essays have made you a better doctor/scientist than your colleagues who went to a medical school with little to no essays?

I really have no idea. It probably orients the teaching more towards understanding of topics rather than learning of facts - certainly way less people resort to resources like expensive private question banks (Pastest etc). But then again essay marking can be quite subjective and rewards those who are good at ********ting.

Of all the differences between the Oxford course and say a pure PBL course, essays in exams is probably one of the least significant. The number of essays we write outside of that - 2-3 per week for the first 2 years - would be much more significant for instance.

Out of interest, what topics did the essays cover?

I'm not sure how essays could test your knowledge as a medical student to be honest. My finals tested our ability to diagnose, investigate and manage acute and common conditions, as well as interpreting blood results/ECGs/Chest XRays etc. I don't know how you could introduce an essay that would test that sort of thing - or anything that is relevant to being a junior doctor.

Also: thought I'd reply to say the above is very easy. 'Write an essay on the diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia', 'Describe the above ECG and its implications for the patient', 'What are the treatment options for a patient who has just been given a new diagnosis of AF', etc.

Not sure why you'd opt for such an assessment method over the more systematic multiple-choice and variants, but you could.