Medical Student Handbook

Double Helix Grading Policy

Table of Contents Handbook Homepage POLICIES & GUIDELINES - Privacy & Access to Academic Records - Disabilities Technical Standards Policy - Assistance for Individual w/Disabilities - ADA Ombudsperson - Mistreatment of Medical Students - Sexual Harassment - Assessment Data - Religious Observance - The U.S. Medical Licensing Examination - Alcohol Use On School of Medicine Property - Impairment Due to Substance Abuse - Self Disclosure in the Course of Learning - Confidentiality - Teaching Exercises with Student Subjects - Video Equipment Use - Regulatory, Health and Other Requirements --- Infection Control --- In-Service Education Competency Exam --- Certification in Use of Clinical Information System --- Medical Student CPR Certification --- University Health Requirements MD Student Responsibility, Conduct, & Academic Policies ACADEMIC ISSUES - Verification of Eligibility for Matriculation - Verification of Academic Credentials - Completion of Required Experiences - Remedial Work - Completion of Academic Deficiencies - Grading Policy up to Class of 2002 - Double Helix Grading Policy - Student Assessment Guide --- Comprehensive Assessments - MD with Distinction - AOA and Dean's Letter Rankings - In-Depth Experience - Plagiarism - Absences from Classes & Academic Responsibilities - Policy on Time Away From Clerkships - Class Attendance - Leaves of Absence - Year-Out Fellowships - Drop/Add Deadline Policy SUPPORT SERVICES - Academic Support Services - University Health Service - Counseling and Mental Health Services - Chaplain's Office - Division of Medical Informatics - Women in Science, Dentistry & Medicine (WISDM) - Assistance for Pregnant Medical Students - Miner Library ADVISING & STUDENT ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS - Advisory Dean Program - Student Enrichment Programs - Student-Sponsored Symposium CONSUMER & LEGAL ASSISTANCE - Integrity Hotline - University Housing - Executing Legal Documents - Consumer and Legal Assistance OFFICES FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION - Medical Education - Student Services Center - Advisory Deans - Student Affairs Office - Registrar's Office - Financial Aid Office - Bursar's Office - Office for Ethnic & Multicultural Affairs - Admissions Office - Medical Alumni Affairs - Student Enrichment Programs - Graduate Studies - Offices for Educational Research - Curricular Affairs Office - Facilities for Students - Student Computing DOUBLE HELIX CURRICULUM MEDICAL EDUCATION OBJECTIVES

1. All course and clerkship grades will have a narrative component for both formative and summative purposes. (Grades of Incomplete (I) and Satisfactory Marginal (Sm) continue as options from the former Grading Policy.)
2. Courses
1. Students must pass both tutorials/small groups (quality of participation in PBLs/labs/conferences) and exams (numerical scores) to pass courses.
2. Students receive pass or fail at the end of each course, including ICM.
3. Students must pass all courses/clerkships and themes to pass each year.
3. Clerkships
1. Renewed emphasis on formal mid-clerkship feedback.
2. Both scalar and narrative pieces to evaluation form, with some categories the same across all clerkships, but some categories tailored to each clerkship.
3. Like course grades, clerkship grades have contributions from both narrative component and objective exam.
4. Grading for all clerkships (including ACE) is Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail.
5. The narrative component of the ACE clerkship will include specific narrative feedback in each of the primary care fields taken (pediatrics, internal medicine, and/or family medicine), although separate grades will not be assigned.
6. For the primary care fields, the performance in ACE will be taken into account in creating the final evaluation for that discipline after the inpatient clerkship has been taken. Thus, a student might receive a High Pass in Internal Medicine who did outstanding work in the adult ambulatory portion of ACE and who then had an otherwise passing grade performance in the medicine half of the Adult Inpatient Clerkship. The narrative submitted by medicine for use in the Dean's Letter would include excerpts from both the adult ambulatory (internal medicine or family medicine) and adult inpatient performance. For a student applying in family medicine who takes a family medicine elective rotation or externship in years three or four, the family medicine narrative and grade would likewise include the evaluation from ACE.
7. The grade distribution will vary between disciplines around a suggested target of 20% honors, 30% high pass, 50% pass, but Dean's Letter and AOA processes will make these percentages explicit and public for each discipline.
4. Global assessments
1. The two end-of-year comprehensive assessments are to certify competence for promotion and to provide formative feedback on relative strengths and weaknesses: not part of honors grades, AOA, Dean's Letter categorization.
2. With the "early warning systems" of the MSPRB and Advisory Dean system, the expectation is that it will be very rare for the comprehensive assessment to "discover" a student who should not be promoted, but almost all students should come away with identified strengths and areas in need of improvement.
3. AOA remains unchanged from classes up to 2002, considering first three years' performance, along with service, leadership and other personal qualities (with input on the latter from the Advisory Dean group).
4. Dean's Letter process remain unchanged from classes up to 2002, including a correction for different percent honors given in each clerkship will ensure each clerkship has the same weight in the process.
5. Transcripts and Dean's Letters
1. In order to help residencies and other external consumers of our students' records better appreciate the Double Helix Curriculum (there not being "preclinical" and "clinical" years), efforts will be made to educate the residency programs to which our students apply and match. These efforts will include cover letters, "keys" to the transcript and Dean's Letter sent out with each, and the like.
2. Both transcripts-for-export and Dean's Letters will be organized by "strand" not by year, to minimize a reader's misunderstanding that performance in, say, the ambulatory medicine component of ACE is "merely" a "pre-clinical" grade.
3. The section of the Dean's Letter that deals with the clinical strand will identify each rotation (eg, ACE, OB/GYN portion of Women's and Children's Health, Neurology portion of Mind/Brain/Behavior II), give the grade for that discipline, and the narrative, with the with percent distribution of grades (H/HP/P/F) for each discipline published in a cover letter, histogram, or on the transcript.