REVIEW OF MD (ANATOMY) EXAM PAPERS: IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF POSTGRADUATE EVALUATION ADEQUATE?

An ideal education system is in-separable from the evaluation system. There has always been a need for an evaluation system which can determine whether predetermined educational objectives have been achieved. As an exercise last 10 years annual MD question papers (anatomy) of university of Delhi were given to the residents and the Post graduate students of anatomy department, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. The analysis of question papers reflected that the emphasis on different parts of the syllabi was not uniform. All the questions were of long and short essay type. Multiple choice questions that are based on recall and problem solving attitude of the students were not at all included. There is need to revise the pattern in which question are being asked that will develop cognitive skills and problem solving attitude among the students. An ideal question paper should give equal weight-age to different content areas/topics and it should include all analytical, objective, long and short answer type questions with an uniform marking scheme for all students. When it comes to medical education, evaluation becomes very important because here lays the responsibility of bringing out the best doctor amongst the best.