Impact of NBME International Foundations of Medicine “IFOM” Examination on Students’ Academic Achievement

Abstract

PurposeTo establish whether the inclusion of an external benchmarking examination [NBME׳s International Foundations of Medicine (IFOM)] as part of summative assessment in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program at Gulf Medical University produced an impact on teaching and learning for academic achievement. MethodTwo cohorts of students (N 120) who appeared for both IFOM Basic Science Exam and IFOM Clinical Science Exam were included in the study. Their IFOM scores were correlated statistically with the university-conducted pre-clerkship and clerkship summative assessment scores. Faculty and students’ evaluation surveys were also conducted to record perceptions of IFOM exams impact on teaching and learning. ResultsA strong positive correlation between the IFOM examinations and the university examinations was observed with correlation coefficient between 0.7 and 0.9 and correlation being statistically significant p≤0.001. The faculty and student evaluation survey on the IFOM exams showed that 70% to 92% of respondents perceived that feedback from IFOM exams helped improvement of pedagogical strategies. DiscussionPerformance on an external benchmarking examination such as NBME׳s IFOM correlated positively with performance on the university assessments following strategic improvements in teaching, learning and assessment methods in the curriculum.