Objective: To assess whether internal assessment as a part of continuous assessment links to the outcome of the final summative assessment.
Methods: The diagnostic accuracy study was conducted at Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from November 2015 to July 2016, and comprised medical students of 2nd year. Different teaching methods used were interactive lectures, case-based sessions, demonstrations, small group discussions, skill lab and practicals. Other confounding factors were not considered. Receiver operator characteristic curve was computed to determine diagnostic accuracy of internal assessment for the prediction of examination results..
Results: Out of 202 students, 122 (60.4%) were male and 80 (39.6%) were female with an overall mean age of 20.05±0.69 years. Total marks of 2nd professional examination and internal assessment were normally distributed with mean values of 131.71±19.81 and 36.18±8.03 respectively. The cut-off value was 27.5 and at this value, sensitivity was 100% and specificity was 91%.
Conclusions: Diagnostic power of internal assessment to identify students who may fail in professional examination was significantly high.
Keywords: Curriculum, Internal assessment, Medical education, Anatomy..