Abstract

Objective: In Ataturk University, Faculty of Medicine, method of education is “integrated system “and multiple-choice tests are used to asses the students in written exams. Obligation to obtain at least 50 of 100 points as the exam's pass point was increased to 60 points. In this study, we aimed to determine how this change in the regulation affected student's success in passing the class.

Materials and Methods: Between 2000 and 2005, the data including mean points and situations of passing class at the end of year of the medical students of first three classes were obtained from student office. The data between 2000 and 2002 in which old exam regulation were applied were compared to those between 2002 and 2005 in which new exam regulation was applied with respect to the classes and gender. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-square and student's t-test.

Results: The most unsuccessful period of the class 2, 3 was the period of 2002-2003 in which the exam regulation was firstly performed. In this year, the failure rates were found as 21.5 % and 20.7 %, for class 2 and 3, respectively. However, there was a signifi-cant increase in average points at the end of the year for both the class 2 and 3 after changing regulation (p = 0001). The failure rates increased from 5.7 % to 11.4 % in the class 1and 4.8 % to 10.6 % in class 3 after changing the regulation. These rates were statistically significant (p = 0.01). Although the average notes at the end of the year of girls were higher than boys in all classes and years, there was no statistically difference between girls and boys in terms of situation of passing class expect for academic periods of 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 of class 2.

Conclusion: It is necessary to change regulations of exam and education depending on circumstances changing with time in order to provide better students. However, this application should be started in the first class. This study revealed that a regulation including an increase in the passing notes at the end of year caused difficulty to pass the class, whereas it remarkably led an increase in averages of notes.