Clinical Evaluations and Final Grade

The clinical evaluations are a major component of a student's final grade. Students need to be aware that the average grade assigned by clinical preceptors is "very good".

The graph below shows the distribution of clinical evaluations for the 1998-2004 Medicine Clerkships and the final grade distributions for the same years.

As can be seen from the graph below, about 70% of average clinical evaluation scores (marroon bars on graph) are above "meets expectations." The distribution of final grades (light blue bars on graph), assigned by the Grades Committee according to medical school guidelines, however, are distributed differently. Students should be aware, then, that multiple "above average" evaluations from clinical evaluators do not necessarily result in a grade of high pass or honors. We encourage faculty preceptors to follow the R.I.M.E. Schema when considering a student's clinical evaluation grade.

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