Original Article
DOI : https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2009.21.1.17

Korean J Med Educ. 2009; 21(1): 17-22.

Published online 2009 March 31.

doi: https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2009.21.1.17

The Relationship between Senior Year Examinations at a Medical School and the Korean Medical Licensing Examination

Ki Hoon Jung¹, Ho Keun Jung¹, and Kwan Lee²

¹Department of General Surgery, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Gyeongju, Korea.
²Department of Preventive of Medicine, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Gyeongju, Korea.

Corresponding Author: Email: jkh6110@paran.com

Received 2008 September 24;    Accepted 2008 December 07.

PURPOSE: Most medical schools prepare for the Korean medical licensing examination (KMLE) with various tests. By assessing the degree to which these exams and the KMLE are related, students, professors, and institutions can be well prepared and some schools use these exams as predictive tools for KMLE scores. Therefore, we determined the relevance of KMLE results to midterm exams and the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), administered to senior students at a medical school. METHODS: From 2002 to 2004, KMLE results were compared with midterm examinations, the KMLE, and the OSCE. The total score, or T-score, of the KMLE was used, as was a pass or nonpass score. Windows SPSS 14.0 and MedCalc 9.0 were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The yearly correlation coefficient of the KMLE and school exams was highest for the midterm exams in 2002 and the KMLE in 2003 and 2004. The correlation coefficient of midterm exams and the KMLE were related to a high degree, yet the values were as low as that of the OSCE. Compared with the KMLE results, the sensitivity and specificity of the average midterm exam were 100.0% and 93.8%, and the sensitivity and specificity of the average trial exams were 100.0% and 95.8%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the KMLE results have a strong relationship with midterm exams, trial exams, and the combination of midterm and trial exams, but not with the OSCE. Thus, we believe that using both midterm exams and trial exams to predict KMLE results is superior to the use of only one type of school exam.

Keywords : Clinical Competence;Educational measurement;Medical licensure