Graphical representation of assessments in a medical curriculum

Abstract

The graphical representation of the assessments in a medical curriculum is useful to all the stakeholders of the curriculum. The graph can be constructed using the academic years as the horizontal axis and the percentage of the maximum final score for each academic year as the vertical axis. Punctuated and continuous summative assessments are shown as vertical and slanting segments on the graph respectively. Horizontal segments indicate no summative assessment. Dotted whiskers represent either formative assessments or summative assessments that do not contribute to the yearly final score. Such a graph provides a visual overview of all the assessments in a curriculum. The MBBS curriculum at the University of Hong Kong is used as an example to illustrate the construction of the graph.