The impact of viva-voce examination on students’ performance in theory component of the final summative examination in physiology

Sharmila Torke¹*, Reem Rachel Abraham¹, K. Ramnarayan² and K. Asha³

¹Department of Physiology, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal 576104 Karnataka State, India.

²Department of Pathology, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal 576104 Karnataka State, India.

³Department of Biostatistics, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal 576104 Karnataka State, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sharmilatorke@yahoo.com.  Tel: 91-820-2571201 ext-22519. Fax: 91-820-2571905.

Accepted 12 March, 2010

   Abstract

Viva voce examinations formed a part of theory component of final summative examination. Since viva voce was conducted to all students irrespective of their passing status in theory, the exercise was found to be time consuming. In this perspective, this study was conducted to determine the impact of viva voce examination on student performance in the summative examination. Three batches of first year medical students were involved in this study. Their theory and viva voce scores in Physiology were reviewed. The ratio of theory to viva voce scores of final summative examination was compared between the passed and failed students of all three batches. Results indicated that there was no correlation between student performance in viva voce examination and that of theory. However, there was no difference in the mean ratio within the batches according to passing status.

Key words: Reliability, face validity, assessment.