Report by the Examination-Committee on the Report by the visitors of primary examinations (Dr. Windle and Professor J. Campbell Brown) on the examination in chemistry, physics, and biology, of the Conjoint Examining Board in England of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal Colege of Surgeons of England, held in July-August, 1902, together with remarks by the bodies inspected (May, 1903).

  • General Medical Council. Examination Committee.
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report by the Examination-Committee on the Report by the visitors of primary examinations (Dr. Windle and Professor J. Campbell Brown) on the examination in chemistry, physics, and biology, of the Conjoint Examining Board in England of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal Colege of Surgeons of England, held in July-August, 1902, together with remarks by the bodies inspected (May, 1903). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Practical Examination on the preparation and staining of a microscopical specimen, were demanded, even if this involved, as it probably would, a curtailment of the Syllabus by the omission of some of the types now demanded. At present a smattering of knowledge—it is no more—is all that Students can be expected to have obtained, and to instil into the minds of Medical Students, at the outset of their career, the idea that a smattering of any subject is all that they should strive for seems to us to be a very false policy. {b) Standaed. In the printed instructions to Examiners it is laid down that four out of a possible ten marks shall be the lowest figure on which a pass is obtainable. This is a respectable percentage, but then it must be borne in mind that there is no such thing as an absolute percentage in Examinations. Here, as in every other place, in subjects in which it is impossible to mark with the accuracy with which, for example, an arithmetic paper can be marked, the value of any percentage fluctuates—the pass- mark is a pass-mark, and is given to the man whom the Examiners deem worthy of passing, without any precise ratio to the sum of knowledge respecting the subject being assigned to it. In other words, 40 per cent, does not mean 40 per cent, of the sum of human knowledge on the subject, but 40 per cent, of such knowledge as experience teaches the Examiners that Candidates may reasonably be expected to possess. Hence 40 per cent, in one Examination may be very different from 40 per cent, in another—that is, there is no such thing as an absolute 40 per cent. We regard the 40 per cent, exacted at this Examination as a rather low 40 per cent. ; but, in saying this, we wish to make it quite clear—(i) that we have not been able to compare this Examination with any others of its own class, so that we are really contrasting it with an ideal standard existing in our own minds; and, (ii) that we believe the Examiners to be abundantly justified, under the existing conditions, in limiting their requirements, as they have done.