Correlation Between Averages Courses Score as Criterion Validity of Student Evaluation

Student evaluation is a special concern in medical education, and validity is one of the most important evaluation characteristics. There are different kinds of validity. Criterion validity is a degree of correlation between an evaluation and another reference evaluation.Medical education for the general physician consists of four discrete courses. Indeed, the average of course scores and comprehensive basic science examination score and score on pre- internship examination are about predicting success of a student in following course. We consider this as criterion validity. We studied average courses score and comprehensive basic science examination and pre-internship examination score of 58 students after all courses were completed. Also, the summative average of previous courses was calculated. The correlation between all single and summative averages and the following course was calculated. Most calculated correlations were above 0.5, but they decreased gradually from basic sciences to clinical sciences. Correlation between basic science average score and pathophysiology average score(0.834) was the highest and correlation between pre-internship exam score with internship average score(0.415) was the lowest. Comprehensive basic sciences examination score and pre-internship examination score did not have a higher coefficient correlation with the following courses compared with the basic science average score and externship average score. The summative average of previous courses showed higher correlation with the following course compared with the single course average. It seems that the evaluation method determine correlations. Comprehensive basic science examination and pre-internship examination both were performed on a single day with MCQ method. All course examinations were performed along with the courses and contained multiple examinations in most of which other methods including OSCE and Tutor Report are used.