VI. Read the following text to check your answers to the following

questions.

1. What is assessed at the UCCA interview?

2. Are "A" level grades the best predictors of future success?

3. What may interfere with the student's ability to pass examinations successfully?

4. Do the examinations motivate students' studies?

5. What is of value: to study to pass examinations or to learn for knowledge?

THE ASSESSMENT OF DENTAL STUDENTS

Leaving aside the subject of "A" levels and school examinations, the first assessment to which the dental student is subjected occurs well before the course is begun, at the UCCA interview. Those charged with this challenging and daunting responsibility are actually selecting, at this early stage, the future entrants to the profession.

What is assessed at this interview? "A" level grades are a notorious­ly bad predictor of future success, and the assumption that just because a person can do "a" (for example, pass History "A" level), he or she can necessarily do "b" is illogical. Furthermore, the fact that a candidate achieves a grade "A" in Biology in no way indicates an ability to care for a nervous dental patient. So this early assessment must move from the objective to the subjective, with an attempt to discover the nervous appli­cant's character from references and the candidate's own writings about hobbies, interests and other matters. The successful applicant is on course to become a dentist, the unsuccessful is rejected out of hand, with little, if any, feedback to help at future interviews.

The next assessment for selection usually encountered by the student is at the end of the pre-clinical period, when traditional written exami­nations determine the award of a pass or a fail. But what exactly is being examined? The slow writer is severely disadvantaged against the student who is able to write quickly. The student with a photographic short mem­ory may gain higher marks than the slow plodder who considers, reflects, understands and acquires knowledge for life. The normally hard-working student who suffers a minor illness, a cold, premenstrual tension, during the week of the examinations may fail. The highly-strung, nervous stu­dent may completely fail to express the knowledge gained from a year's hard study under the tension of concentrated examinations. The "ques- tion-spotter" may hit the jackpot.

The idea that examinations motivate students is a frequently quoted justification for the retention of the formal examination system. Surely this view is a symptom of a serious malaise in the entire education sys­tem, suggesting that learners are being taught irrelevant and uninterest­ing curricula needing threats to keep them on course. They become obsessed with learning for tests rather than learning for knowledge. "Will we be examined on this?" becomes a reason for learning rather than, "Will this be of value in life?". Furthermore, it must be asked that if stu­dents require such extrinsic factors to motivate them to learn, will they have the necessary motivation to continue to study during their entire careers to maintain the highest professional standards? In short, arc stu­dents who only study to pass examinations the sort of people we want in our profession?

VII. This text will provide you with information about some changes in American Health Care System and usage of managed care organizations as teaching sites for medical students. Read the text through to find the answers to these questions.