Second BM

Second Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine

1. A candidate may be admitted to the Second Examination if his or hertheir name has been entered on the University Register of Clinical Students and hethey or she hashave satisfied one of the following conditions:

• (a) hethey or she hashave passed in all the subjects of the First Examination and the Qualifying Examination in the Principles of Clinical Anatomy and has either been admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours or obtained a bachelor's degree at another university; or

• (b) he orthey she hashave passed in all the subjects of the Preliminary Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine and the Year 2 Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine; or

• (c) hethey or she hashave both

  • (i)  successfully completed at a university in the United Kingdom a GMC-approved course of study in medical sciences that has included the subjects of the First Examination and the Principles of Clinical Anatomy, and is deemed by the Medical Sciences Board to qualify the candidate for admission; and

  • (ii) obtained a bachelor's degree in science or arts at a university, such degree having been approved by the Board.

2. Candidates for the Second Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine are required to pursue their studies during a period of: normally 38 weeks in Year 4; normally 45 weeks in Year 5; normally 46 weeks in Year 6; provided that the Medical Sciences Board shall have power to permit candidates to vary the dates of their studies so long as the overall programme requirement is met.

3. The Second Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine shall be under the supervision of the Medical Sciences Board. 

4. The Board shall have power to require candidates for admission to any partParts of the Secondassessment Examinationin Year 5/Graduate-entry Year 3 and Year 6/Graduate-entry Year 4 will comprise the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) which is required by the General Medical Council to producetest certificatesthe core knowledge, skills and behaviours of attendancedoctors atnew coursesto medical practice in the UK. The two parts of practicalthe instruction,MLA are:

(a) Clinical and suchProfessional otherSkills certificatesAssessment (CPSA): the clinical examination in Year 5/Graduate-entry Year 3 and the clinical examination in Year 6/Graduate-entry Year 4 together make up the CPSA.

(b) Applied Knowledge Test (AKT): this is the Applied Knowledge Test in Year 6/Graduate-entry Year 4, which is a nationally-constructed, university-delivered examination, which has a common format, test standard, delivery process and policy framework. The MLA Board acts as the Boardmain may from time to time determine,oversight and togovernance definegroup theresponsible formfor ofall such certificates. It shall be the dutyelements of the RegistrarUK toMLA see that these conditions are observedAKT.

45. The subject of the Second Examination shall be clinical medicine in all its aspects.

• (a)  The Second Examination shall cover three years, the subjects for each year being prescribed by regulation of the Medical Sciences Board.

• (b)  Each of Years 4 and 5 shall involve a form of assessment prescribed by regulation of the Board which shall be notified to candidates. No candidate shall commence Year 5 or 6 until he or she has satisfactorily completed Year 4 or 5 respectively (except that a candidate shall be permitted to commence Year 5 if he or she has passed in all the assessment units in the Preliminary Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine and has passed all of the assessment units of the Year 2 Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine), unless the Director of Clinical Studies and the Associate Director of Clinical Studies, at their discretion and in exceptional circumstances, decide that the candidate may proceed to the next year of study on condition that he or she should undertake remedial work and if necessary be reassessed at a later date.

• (c) Year 6 shall involve written and clinical examinations and may involve oral examinations. No candidate shall be deemed to have completed the Year 6 Vocational Skills Course until they have passed the assessments for Years 4 and 5 and the Year 6 General Clinical Studies Course.

5.  A candidate who has passed in all the assessment units of the Preliminary Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine and has passed all of the assessment units of the Year 2 Examination in Graduate-entry Medicine shall be permitted to proceed directly to commence Year 5.

6.  The examiners may award a Distinction for outstanding performance over the three years. Criteria for Distinctions will be determinedset byout in the MedicalExamination Sciences BoardConventions.

7.  The examiners may award merits in each of the examined subjects in YearsYear 4, and Year 6 / Graduate-entry Year 4. The examiners may award a merit for overall performance in the Integrated Summative Assessment in Year 5 and/ 6Graduate-entry Year 3.

8.  Breach of the Code of Conduct for Medical Students, as approved and from time to time amended by Council's General Purposes Committee on the recommendation of the Medical Sciences Board, may be deemed to be a ground for removal of a student's name from the University Register of Clinical Students according to procedures which shall always be subject to approval by Council's General Purposes Committee on the recommendation of the Medical Sciences Board.

9.  The provisions of the appropriate regulations, concerning the times of holding examinations and the entry of names, and the special regulation concerning dress shall not, unless otherwise prescribed by regulation of the board, apply to Years 4 and 5, except in the case of a formal examination set by the examiners of these stages, as prescribed by regulation of the Board.

Regulations for Assessment in Years 4, 5, and 6

Proposals for the assessment of candidates in Years 4, 5, and 6 of the examination shall be drawn up by the Board’s Clinical Education Committee and submitted for approval to the Medical Sciences Board, at such times as the Board shall determine. The form or forms of assessment are chosen from among the following: 

• (a) objective structured clinical examinations; 
• (b) written tests, which may consist in whole or in part of, for example, multiple choice questions; 
• (c) clinical examination including long and short cases; 
• (d) competency check sheets, logbooks, or portfolios; 
• (e) examination and comment (written or viva voce) on specimens; 
• (f) poster presentations; 
• (g) case presentations; 
• (h) case histories and commentaries; 
• (i) prepared essays; 
• (j) other tests individually approved by the Board. 

In clinical subjects, all assessments shall include a test of clinical competence. In addition, reports on candidates’ attendance and general aptitude shown during the course of instruction shall be made by those responsible for the course and taken into consideration in association with the performance of candidates in the assessment.

Candidates will be required to satisfy the Director of Clinical Studies and the Associate Director of Clinical Studies regarding their professional behaviour by having both satisfactorily attended and completed required coursework.

A candidate shall be warned (in a timely fashion and in writing with a copy to the Director of Clinical Studies) by those responsible for the course in question, if their attendance and general aptitude are such as seems likely to jeopardise the candidate's chances of passing the assessment (either work-based on course assessment or the end of year assessment).

No candidate may offer any assessment unit on more than two occasions, saveexcept in exceptional circumstances.  A further exceptional opportunity to offer any assessment unit in Years 4, 5/Graduate-entry Year 3 or Year 6/Graduate-entry Year 4 shall require application to and approval on behalf of the Educational Policy and Standards Committee of the Medical Sciences Board, according to the published ‘Procedure for Exceptional Attempts at the Second BM Examination’.    If granted, this exceptional resit attempt shall normally be taken at the next opportunity, but may be deferred once, i.e.  it must be taken at one of the next two opportunities. In the event that

It a candidate’s performance is judged to be unsatisfactory at the second attempt, and any application that may have been made for an exceptional further attempt is unsuccessful, then their name shall be removed from the responsibilityRegister of theClinical staff concerned, under the supervision of the Medical Sciences Board, to give the candidates and the relevant examiners and/or assessors, reasonable notice of the dates on which the assessments will take place, to decide on the outcome of each assessment, and to keep departmental records of each assessmentStudents. A candidate should not normally be assessed exclusively by staff members who have been responsible for his or her instruction.

Year 4

Syllabus and Examination

In Year 4, students are required to satisfy the examiners in the:

• (a) the Laboratory Medicine course (concerning the application to human disease of the principles of Laboratory Medicine, including Histopathology, Microbiology and Infection, Clinical Biochemistry, Immunology, and Haematology);

• (b) (b)Integrated Clinical Course: Medicine;

• (c) and Surgery.

Each candidateThere will be assessedthree accordingexaminations:

• (a) toPaper theA methods(Laboratory approvedMedicine). byThis thewill Medicalbe Sciencesan BoardApplied Knowledge Test (AKT) consisting of multiple choice questions.
• (b) Paper B (Integrated paper in Medicine, Surgery and notifiedApplied toPathology). candidatesThis beforewill thebe commencementan Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) consisting of eachmultiple coursechoice ofquestions.
• (c) instructionAn Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Candidates must satisfy the relevant head of department or his or hertheir deputy, or the Director of Clinical Studies and the Associate Director of Clinical Studies, that they have attended a course of instruction, and attained the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding in:

• [For(a) students starting before MT 2019: ]

• [For students starting from MT 2019: (a) Patient Doctor Course II: introduction to clinical practice (being an introduction to clinical methods, history taking and physical examination);

• (b)  Clinical Communication Skills;

• (c) Medical Ethics and Law;

• (d) Primary Health Care;

• (e) Population Health;
• (ef)  Special Study approved on behalf of the Medical Sciences Board.]

No candidate shall commence Year 5 until he or she has satisfactorily completed Year 4, unless the Director of Clinical Studies and the Associate Director of Clinical Studies at their discretion should, in exceptional circumstances, decide that the candidate may proceed to Year 5 on condition that he or she should undertake remedial work and if necessary be reassessed at a later date.

Assessment

A candidate in Year 4 who failshas been deemed to reachhave a satisfactory standardfailed in any partunit of the assessment at the first attempt maywill offerbe himself or herself for reassessment onpermitted one further occasionattempt and will only be required to be reassessed in the partassessment or parts of the assessmentunit they have failed.

Progression from Year 4 to Year 5 

If a candidate failshas passed all of the Year 4 examinations but has failed to reachmeet athe satisfactoryrequirements standardin one or more of the other course components due to circumstances beyond their control, they will normally be allowed, at the second attempt in any partdiscretion of the assessment,Director of Clinical Studies and the headrelevant Associate Director of departmentClinical concernedStudies, or his or her deputy, shall require the candidate to becontinue reassessedas ina thestudent partenrolled oron partsYear 5 of the assessmentClinical previouslyMedicine course, subject to the condition that they complete the outstanding course components by a specified date. 

If a candidate has passed all of the Year 4 examinations but has failed afterto completingmeet the necessaryrequirements coursework;in thisone assessmentor shallmore of the other course components, they may be carriedallowed, outat the discretion of the Director of Clinical Studies and adjudgedthe relevant Associate Director of Clinical Studies, to continue as a student enrolled on Year 5 of the Clinical Medicine course, subject to the condition that they complete the outstanding course components by a specified date. 

If a candidate has failed one or more of the Year 4 examinations after one attempt but has not had the opportunity to make a second attempt at that examination / those examinations by the staffnormal appointed by the relevant head of department. In the event that a candidate’s performance is judged to be unsatisfactory at this third attempt then his or her name shall be removed from the Register of Clinical Students subject to appeal to the Medical Sciences Board.

Dutiestime of the Examinerssecond sitting of the examinations, they shall not be allowed to continue as a student enrolled on Year 5 of the Clinical Medicine course until they have passed the outstanding examinations.