Gaining an advantage by sitting an OSCE after your peers: A retrospective study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate if final year medical students undertaking an OSCE station at a later stage during examination diet were advantaged over their peers who undertook the same station at an earlier stage, and whether any such effect varies by the student’s relative academic standing.

Methods: OSCE data from six consecutive final year cohorts totaling 1505 students was analyzed. Mixed effects logistic regression was used to model factors associated with the probability of passing each individual station (random effects for students and circuits; and fixed effects to assess the association with day of examination, time of day, gender and year).

Results: Weaker students were more likely to pass if they took their OSCE later in the examination period. The odds of passing a station increased daily by 20%. Overall, the mean number of stations passed by each student increased over the 5 days.

Conclusions: Students undertaking the same OSCE stations later in examination period statistically had higher chances of passing compared to their peers, and the weaker students appear to be particularly advantaged. These findings have major implications for OSCE design, to ensure students are not advantaged by examination timing, and weaker students are not “passing in error”.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Glossary

Collusion: The intentional and impermissible sharing of exam contents between students, which is often secret and discreet, and is tantamount to cheating.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Asim Ghouri

Asim Ghouri, MBChB, BSc (Med Sci), is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Glasgow and contributed to drafting all versions of the manuscript.

Charles Boachie

Charles Boachie, BSc, is a statistician at the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics at the University of Glasgow and analyzed and interpreted data. Charles also contributed to drafting of the original manuscript.

Suzanne McDowall

Suzanne McDowall is Examinations and NHS Liaison Officer at University of Glasgow, Undergraduate Medical School. Suzanne helped extract the raw exam data used for analysis.

Jim Parle

Jim Parle, MBChB, FRCGP, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Primary Care at the Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham. Jim contributed to conceiving and designing the study and drafting the final manuscript.

Carol A. Ditchfield

Carol A. Ditchfield, BSc (Hons), PGCE, PhD, M.Ed, SFHEA, is a Senior Lecturer and is involved with the undergraduate medical curriculum at the University of Glasgow. Carol contributed to conceiving and designing the study. Carol also contributed to drafting of the original manuscript.

Alex McConnachie

Alex McConnachie, PhD, is a statistician at the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics at the University of Glasgow and oversaw data analysis and interpretation. Alex also contributed to drafting of the original manuscript.

Matthew R. Walters

Matthew R. Walters, MBChB, MD, FRCP, is Head of School (Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing) at the University of Glasgow. Matthew conceived and designed the study and contributed to the drafting all versions of the manuscript.

Nazim Ghouri

Nazim Ghouri, MBChB, MD, MRCP, is Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Nazim conceived and designed the study, contributed to, and oversaw drafting of all versions of the manuscript.