Alfaisal medical students from all batches (from year 1 to year 5) took a nationwide progress test together with 11 other medical schools in the kingdom on May 13, 2013. Progress testing (PT) is a comprehensive knowledge longitudinal testing approach which assesses the end of curriculum objectives (at graduation) of undergraduate medical training across all medical disciplines. It has been used in medical education for over 30 years, both in McMaster University in Canada and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Many of the Western Universities are adopting progress testing.
With progress testing, the entire student population of a medical school sits for the same test at the same time. The medical school at Al Qassem University has utilized its partnership with the Maastricht University to prepare the progress test. Many medical colleges in the kingdom contributed to the preparation of the test. Alfaisal College of Medicine Students ranked the highest out of 12 medical schools that took the test and its been confirmed that 6 out of the top ten students in the Kingdom are Alfaisal/COM students.
Dean of College of Medicine Dr. Khaled Al Kattan stated “It is amazing to see that our top achiever in Year-1 scored 27.95 (national average 6.71), Year 2 top achiever scored 47.24 (national average 10.91), Year 3 top achiever scored 55.73 (national average 18.41) Year 4 Top achiever scored 80.35 (national average 22.54) and Year 5 top achiever scored 88.50 (national average 36.71)”.
Also some of the Year 2 students have scored more than national average for the final year students and many of our 3rd year medical students scored higher than many of the 5th year medical students in other medical schools. More interestingly 27 out of 35 students of the graduating batch have scored above the national average which is 36.71. The cumulative average of these students is 55.74, which is way above the national average.
Alfaisal’s average in all years is showing an upward trend (almost doubling every year) 8.49% (first Year) 16.20 (second Year) 29.0 (third year), 34.47 (fourth year) and 48.77 (fifth year). This shows that there is continuous improvement in their learning experience over the five years of the curriculums .
A hearty Congratulation for the high achievement and outstanding performance of Alfaisal students.