THE CORRELATION BETWEEN COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION SCORE AND GRADE POINT AVERAGE

Jirayut Janma^*1, Yongyos Jariya², ¹Department of Internal Medicine
²Medical Education Center ,Buddhachinaraj Hospital, School of Medicine, 90 Srithamtripidok Road, Phitsanulok, 65000, THAILAND

Purpose                                                                                               
According to our medical curriculum, all 5th year medical students have to pass a comprehensive examination before they finish their medical program. A group of four medical schools in rural areas of Thailand named Chiengmai, Khonkhan, Songklanakarintr and Naresuan University medical school were responsible for this exam. The examination consisted of 300 multiple-choice questions (MCQ). Each school established 300 questions according to the specification framework that had been set up and pooled together. Each question was selected from the pool. This study aims to evaluate medical students' comprehensive examination scores and grade point averages.

Methods
A cross-sectional descriptive analytic study in 2002-2006 to evaluate medical students' comprehensive examination scores and grade point averages. The correlation was assessed by Pearson correlation.

Results
275 medical students were evaluated on their comprehensive examination scores and their grade point averages. The students with higher grade point average yielded higher score on comprehensive examination. There is significant (p <0.01) correlation between the comprehensive examination score and grade point average

Conclusion
Based on the present study, we concluded that our medical school has successfully taught medical students to gain enough knowledge to pass a comprehensive examination. Further study should evaluate the correlation between performance assessment such as OSCE examination and grade point average or comprehensive examination score and OSCE examination score.