National Medical Exams in Australia – is it Possible?

The question of national medical exams in Australia has sporadically been debated and both advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. The value and importance of monitoring minimum standards over schools is generally accepted but arguments that national exams may impede flexibility of schools’ curricula and instructional methods are used to oppose such exams.

Different methods which can be used to administer national exams without limiting schools are discussed in this paper. By including questions agreed on by different schools in their assessments or by using different subsets of questions, valid comparisons of performance can be achieved. If enough questions are included, robust results can be obtained.