Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why do we only get 72 seconds per question on quizes and exams?
The timing of course exams and quizes, 72 seconds per question, mimics the time you will have on the Boards (50 questions in 60 minutes). We occasionally adjust this for exams that have an unusually large proportion of complex questions. However, most of our exam questions are less complex than the Board questions, so if you find yourself running out of time on the course exams, you probably should try to get a better handle on the material so that you can work through the questions faster.
2. On the last exam, I chose answer E to one of the questions. Although the answer key showed that B was the correct answer, I found a website that said that in some cases E might also be true. I wrote a comment suggesting that both B and E be accepted as correct answers, but the unit chairs said that the course director would only accept E, which he said was the best answer. Why can't I get credit for B?
All of our multiple choice questions, as well as those on USMLE Step 1 exam, have this instruction:
Select the single best answer to the question from among the options.
Other options may be partially correct, but there is only ONE BEST answer. In its guide to writing exam questions, the National Board or Medical Examiners states that the options of a multiple choice question can be ranked from least to most correct, for example:
In this question, even though the incorrect answers C, A, and E are not completely wrong, they are less correct than B, the "keyed answer." To get credit for the question, you have to choose B, the best of the alternatives.
What if I get the lecturer who wrote the question to ok accepting both answers?
The course director makes the final decisions about the answer key, and is responsible for ensuring that credit is only given for the single best answer. You may ask the unit chairs to present the opinion of the lecturer in discussions with the course director, who in any case will ask the advice of the lecturer in determining which of the answers is best. In the end, however, it is the course director who decides which of the answers is most correct. If the course director decides that it is not possible to choose a best answer, he or she may drop the question from the exam.
3. Why does it take so long to get our grades out after the course final exam?
We can't send out your grades until we have all the assignments graded and have finalized the answer key to finalized exam. We don't have the finalized exam key until after you have made your comments at the exam comment session, and the unit chairs meet with the course director to discuss any problem questions. This process usually takes less than a week. Once the course director considers the comments and approves the final key, we calculate the final grades, determine the cutoff for honors, and send you your grade..
4. What do all those numbers on the e-mailed grade report mean?
Your e-mail following a course looks something like this
Here are your grades.
Name: Bright Student Grade: SH (91%)
Score Grade Date
Quiz (10%, 30) 27 90% 12/25/04
Sm. Grp. Quiz (10%, 10) 9 90% 1/1/05
Lab Assign (10%, 100) 100 100% 1/1/05
Final Exam (70%, 100) 90 90% 1/1/05
The two numbers in parenthesis after the name of the category (Quiz for example) are first, the % of the overall course grade that comes from that test or assignment (10% for the quiz in this example), and, next, the maximum score (in this example, the quiz had 30 questions). The number in the Score column is your raw score (i.e. the number of points you got) on that test or assignment (in the example, Bright Student got 27 on the quiz, which, as noted earlier, had 30 questions). The Grade is your % score in that category (here, 90%, which is 27/30).
Sometimes, a category may have several contributing components. The top line in the example below is the average for the "On-line Questions" category. This average goes into the calculation of your final grade. The lines beneath it show your scores on the individual components:
Score Grade Date
On-line Questions (10%) 93%
Set #1 (33%, 10) 9 90% 1/1/05
Set #2 (33%, 6) 6 100% 1/2/05
Set #3 (33%, 8) 7 88% 1/3/05
In the report sent to you, all grades are rounded to the nearest whole number. However, the grading program retains the unrounded grade and uses it to calculate the overall course grade.
Your final course grade is calculated by
1. multiplying the (% contribution to the final grade) X (grade) for each category
2. getting the sum of all the categories.
3. rounding this to the nearest whole number.
5. How do I get credit when I participate in the small group discussion or present a multi-disciplinary conference? It does not seem to affect my grade in the organ system courses.
Your small group and multi-disciplinary conference presentations do not contribute to the organ systems course grades. Instead, these contribute to your grade in IDC 279, Case Studies in Medicine. This course is graded by the Pathology and Medicine faculty group facilitators, who are with your group for the entire year and attend multi-disciplinary conferences that you present. At the end of the year you will receive a grade (SH/SA/UN) based on all your small group participation and MDC presentations throughout the year. The faculty of IDC 279 assess not only your knowledge, but also critical thinking and problem solving skills, ethical reasoning, and "affective skills" such as interpersonal communication with fellow students and faculty, initiative, and reliability. Based on their observations, the faculty prepare narrative comments that may eventually be incorporated into the Dean's letter that you will need when applying for Residency.
6. If I have something else to do when my small group is scheduled to meet, can I attend the same session with another small group that meets at a more convenient time?
Usually not. As explained above, your faculty group facilitators evaluate your contributions to your small group throughout the year. This is not possible when you join a different group with diffent faculty facilitators. Furthermore, the "small" groups are already rather large - an extra person reduces the opportunities for the group members to participate. Therefore, we will only approve requests to attend a different small group in extraordinary circumstances.
7. I bought a non-refundable ticket for the day before vacation starts. Now I see that there is an exam on the last day before vacation. Can I take the exam early?
No. When evaluating a request to reschedule a required activity, we ask the question "if everyone in the class made this request, would we reschedule the required activity?". If the reason for rescheduling is that you are going into labor or are presenting research at a national meeting, it's likely that the request would pass the "everyone in the class" test. On the other hand, if the reason is to start vacation early, it wouldn't. When making vacation plans, please consult the academic calendar to determine when a recess begins. If you are buying non-refundable ticket, assume that the last required course activity ends at 4:30 P.M. on the last scheduled day of class.
8. What will they ask on the Boards?
The only authoritive source of information on the content and types of questions that appear on the board is the USMLE website (http://www.usmle.org/step1/default.htm), from which you can view or download a Step 1 content description, Step 1 test question formats and sample test questions. The faculty and the Educational Policy Committee have designed the curriculum to teach you what y ou need to know to be an excellent physician. The Step 1 tests you on a subset of this knowledge - and, despite what you may occasionally hear from lecturers, the great majority of faculty don't know what "they always ask on the boards". Exam review books are written by medical school faculty who are supposed to know even less about the boards - authors of review books or instructors in commercial board review courses are not permitted even the occasional look at the sample boards. So with respect to the board questions, "those who know don't say, those who say don't know". The best preparation for your profession AND for the Step 1 is to master the content of the courses in the curriculum.
If you want a second, third, fourth...thousandth opinion on how to perpare for the boards, this site links to all of them.
9. What is the Basic Science Shelf Exam, and why do we take it?
The Comprehensive Basic Science Examination, better known as the Basic Science Shelf Exam, is, to quote the National Board of Medical Examiners, " a general, integrated achievement test covering material typically learned during basic science education, with somewhat more emphasis on second-year courses. The exam reflects content coverage on USMLE Step 1 and uses the same item formats." You can see a somewhat helpful breakdown of the content coverage on the NBME website.
The sentence "The exam reflects content coverage on USMLE Step 1 and uses the same item formats " sums up the value of taking this exam: it's a surrogate for the Step 1. The test will give you the look and feel of taking the boards and you will see the kind of questions and breadth of material that is expected of you. A few days after the exam, you will receive from the National Board of Medical Examiners an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses based on your answers on the Shelf Exam.
The score on the Basic Science Shelf correlates very well with the score on the Step 1 - in a "Ghost of Christmas Future" sort of way. As with Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, the vision of the future you get from your Basic Science Shelf score does not have to come to pass, but probably will if you don't change your life, or at least your study plan, quickly. This page explains how to translate your Shelf score into an equivalent USMLE Step 1 score.
