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Table 1 - ASSESSMENT - data describing your assessments

Version 1.1 Produced 2023-11-15

Field name Field long name Definition Data type Sample entries Essential or desirable Further notes and guidance
ASSESSID Assessment identifier Primary key for ASSESSMENT table. Identifier for the assessment, formed from a concatenation of university UKPRN, year of programme and a consecutive number
This identifier remains the same across years. If assessments are changed substantially, they will require a new ID
Schools with two UKPRNS will have both reflected in the ID.
Text "10007158_Y1_A1"
"10006386_10007158_Y1_A1"
Essential Please refer to the 2021/22 ASSESSMENT table for your school, which the GMC will provide back to you. This will provide you with the existing ASSESSIDs and other details for continuing assessments.
COURSE Course name The name or category of the course this assessment is used for, which will vary if your school runs more than one course or route. Text "Standard Entry Medicine"
"Foundation Year Programme"
"BM6"
"Four-year programme"
Essential It is helpful (though optional) if you can categorise your courses as follows:
  • "Standard Entry Medicine"
  • "Graduate Entry Medicine"
  • "Medicine with a Gateway Year"
  • "Medicine with a Foundation Year"
Where students on multiple courses take the same assessment – e.g. Y4 GEM and Y5 SEM students sitting the same OSCE – please include a duplicate row for that assessment, one with COURSE = GEM and one = SEM.
ASSESSNAME Assessment name The school's internal identifier for the assessment. This could be the code or name for a whole module or an individual assessment or component. Text "HSFI MEDI0011"
"Chemistry and Medicine - overall grade"
"End of stage written examination"
"CLIN103 - Clincal skills OSCE"
"Student Selected Component - essay"
Essential Please ensure that between ASSESSNAME and ASSESSDESCRIP, researchers and other data users will be able to understand the name and nature of the assessment or module that each row of ASSESSMENT refers to.
ASSESSTYPE Assessment type A description of the type of assessment used. For example, this may describe the type of written examination used, the type of practical or clinical examination used. Where an assessment is a combination of several methods, these may all be described, possibly with a percentage to indicate weighting. Text "Two papers - SBA and MCQ, each 50% of overall score."
"50% SAQ, 50% OSCE"
"Three MCQ papers across the academic year, initial scores formative, final combined score summative (equal weighting)."
"Clinical examination"
Essential
MLACPSA Contribution to Medical Licensing Assessment, Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment Percentage contribution of the assessment to the overall MLACPSA assessment.
Where your programme's CPSA examination consists of a single assessment, this value will be 100.
Where your programme's CPSA examination is split across two assessments, each will have a value of 50.
Where an assessment will not contribute to CPSA, MLACPSA will be 0.
Number "100" Essential More details on the MLA here
ASSESSDESCRIP Assessment description A description of the assessment. This is a free text field. Text "Human Structure and Function"
"Overall grade of assessments in Chemistry and Medicine module - 2 written exams and an essay"
"End of Y2 written examination, two papers (MCQ and SBA papers)"
"Objective Structured Clinical Exam Y5"
"Y4 Essay on topic selected from list of topics"
Essential Please ensure that between ASSESSNAME and ASSESSDESCRIP, researchers and other data users will be able to understand the name and nature of the assessment or module that each row of ASSESSMENT refers to.
ASSESSYEARPROG Year of programme The year of the student's programme the assessment is sat. We would usually anticipate this to be between 0-6. Number "1" Essential For foundation or gateway years, ASSESSYEARPROG will be 0.
TOTALSCOREMETHOD Total score methodology This is the method by which the total score method is derived. This is a free text field
For assessments made up of only one component, that component would be 100%
Where the assessment has multiple components, state their percentage contribution.
Is standard error used?
Text "SBA 50% of score, MCQ 50% of score"
"SAQ and OSCE 50% each"
"Three papers, contributing 33.3% each"
"Clinical examination overall score must meet cut score, must also pass a certain number of stations to pass"
"Essay 66%, group presentation 33%"
Essential - if applicable Where a clinical examination also requires a minimum number of station passes, or a maximum number of station fails, please detail this here, and provide the number in PASSMARK's STATIONREQ field.
SCORETYPE Score type The type of score used by this assessment. Text "Raw score"
"Percentage"
"Raw score, number of stations passed"
"Number of stations passed"
"Alphanumeric grade converted to numerical score"
Essential
STANDARDSETTING Standard setting Description of the standard setting method used, for example:
  • Angoff method
  • Borderline group
  • Enter NA if not applicable
Text "Angoff" Essential
YEARSTART Year the assessment started The first academic year the assessment was used and included in this collection. Text "2020/21" Essential
YEAREND Year the assessment ended The last academic year the assessment was used and included in this collection. If the assessment will be included in next year's return please leave blank. Text "2022/23" Optional If this is the last year an assessment will be used (due to change in curriculum or assessment schemes) then please enter "2022/23" in this field, else leave blank.
EPMWEIGHT Educational Performance Measure weighting The weighting given to the assessment when calculating the student's EPM decile score for their foundation programme application. EPM score is described at link in column G. Number "0" Optional https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/faqs/educational-performance-measure-epm-faqs/
SPECIALARRANGEMENTS Special arrangements due to COVID-19 for academic year 2020/21 For schools to record any arrangements, adjustments or changes made to this assessment in this assessment year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes may relate to a variety of areas, e.g. delivery format, marking, content and dates held. Enter NA if not applicable. We hope this information will not be required in subsequent academic years. Text "It's been decided that in 2020-21 there will only be 2 SBA's (one in Jan and one in May), the November 2020 SBA has been cancelled." Essential We believe that this data item is phasing out and is unlikely to be used from 2023/24 onwards. It is included in 2022/23 to capture any exceptional circumstances.
NOTES Further notes Any notes or further context about this assessment that you may wish to make the collection team aware of. Text Optional

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