THE TYPE OF SCHOOL BOARD EXAMINATIONS FOR CLASS 12 DOES NOT PREDICT PERFORMANCE OF FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS IN BIOCHEMISTRY

Abstract

Students entering medical colleges pass qualifying examinations of different boards of school examinations, each of which has its own syllabus. It is our observation that students who qualify from state board examinations have more difficulty with Biochemistry in the first year of the medical course than students who have passed other board  examinations, such as the Central Board of Secondary  Examinations (CBSE) and the Indian School Certificate (ISC) examinations. This study was carried out to test the   hypothesis that the students who qualify from the CBSE and ISC boards perform better in biochemistry in the first year of the medical course. To do this, an attempt was made to            determine whether the academic performance of first year medical students correlated with the school board they qualified from. The results obtained showed no such   correlation. We conclude that the type of school qualifying examination does not predict performance of first year medical students in Biochemistry.