AVAILABLE GRADES
Grading is Pass/Fail for all courses offered in the pre-clerkship years.
POLICY ON THE REQUIREMENTS TO PASS EACH BLOCK
In order to receive a Grade of Pass students must do the following:
COURSE FAILURE POLICY
A grade of Fail in one course will result in the designation Experiencing Academic/Professional Difficulty. The student must make-up the grade by passing the retest exam at the next designated retest date.
MARGINAL PERFORMANCE POLICY
INCOMPLETE GRADE POLICY
REQUESTS FOR EVALUATION MODIFICATIONS/GRADE CHANGES
Updated July 2020
The faculty responsible for instruction (or their delegates) award clinical grades, final examination grades and overall grades of Honors (H), High Pass (HP), Pass (P), Fail (F) or Incomplete (Inc.) according to the Clinical Years Grading Policy.
The Clinical Grading Rubric can be viewed here.
The Grading Tool for Core Clerkships can be viewed here.
**Please note that the DGSOM Medical Education Committee has voted in favor of Year 3 core clerkships being graded on a credit/no-credit basis effective March 2020 for clerkships impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
INCOMPLETE GRADES
The Course Chair may assign the Incomplete grade to either the clinical or final examination grade (which in turn translates to an Incomplete overall grade) when either clinical work is of passing quality but is incomplete, or the final examination has not been taken (due to illness or another serious problem). Once an Incomplete (Inc.) grade is assigned, it remains on the transcript until resolved.
To resolve a grade of an Incomplete in core clerkships, students must satisfactorily complete clinical coursework and/or the final examination as specified by the Clerkship Chair, and resolve the Incomplete before proceeding to required 4th year rotations.
POLICY ON THE REQUIREMENTS TO PASS CLERKSHIPS
COURSE FAILURE POLICY IN THE CORE CLERKSHIPS
Revised May 2017
Evaluation criteria will be included in the course syllabus for each of the Core Clinical Clerkships, Longitudinal Preceptorship and Systems-Based Health Care. Please refer to the individual course syllabi for additional details on evaluation criteria.
Courses Graded on the 4-tier system of Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail
Core Clinical Clerkships: Ambulatory Medicine, Family Medicine, Inpatient Medicine, Psychiatry, Neurology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Surgery.
Courses Graded on the Pass/Fail System
Systems-Based Health Care and Longitudinal Preceptorship: Students are required to attend and actively participate in all sessions in order to receive a grade of Pass.
Longitudinal Primary Care Preceptorship and Longitudinal Primary Care Research: Drew students are required to attend and actively participate in all sessions in order to receive a grade of Pass.
Longitudinal Radiology: Students are required to take and pass a Radiology exam at the end of each clerkship. A cumulative score of 70 percent is required to pass the course.
In addition to a grade, students will receive narrative evaluations based on their performance for all 3rd year coursework. The “Comments” section will be incorporated into the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letter for residency applications. The “Feedback” section of the narrative evaluation will serve to provide meaningful feedback to the student on his/her performance on the Core Clinical Clerkships, Longitudinal Preceptorship, or Systems-Based Heath Care with recommendations for improvement.
Clerkship and Course chairs are asked to meet with students whose performance is failing in order to provide the student with feedback and recommendations to improve their performance. In addition, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs will also be notified as soon as possible by the Site Director, Clerkship Chair, or Course Chair, as applicable, of students who have been determined to be at risk of failing the course.
All performance evaluations and assessments must be submitted within six weeks of the conclusion of a course or clerkship.
POLICY ON THE REQUIREMENTS TO PASS 4th YEAR COURSEWORK (Effective: May 2017)
In addition to a grade, students will receive narrative evaluations based on their performance for all 4th year coursework. The “Comments” section will be incorporated into the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letter for residency applications, and the “Feedback” section will serve to provide meaningful feedback to the student on his or her clinical performance on the elective, with recommendations for improvement.
Course chairs are asked to meet with students whose performance is failing in order to provide the student with feedback and recommendations to improve their performance. In addition, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs will also be notified by the Course Chair as soon as possible of students who have been determined to be at risk of failing the course.
All performance evaluations and assessments must be submitted within four weeks of the conclusion of the course.
DGSOM Matriculation on or after August 2014:
The David Geffen School of Medicine adopted a 4-tier grading system: Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail for the clinical years beginning with students that matriculated on or after August 2014. Grading will be criterion-based, which measures student performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria.
DGSOM Matriculation prior to August 2014:
For students matriculating in the curriculum at the David Geffen School of Medicine prior to August 2014, grading in the clinical years is strictly Pass/Fail.
Evaluation criteria are included in the course syllabus for each of the Clinical Core Clerkships, Longitudinal Preceptorship, Systems-Based Health Care. Please refer to the individual course syllabi for additional details on evaluation criteria.
In addition to a grade (Pass/Fail), students will receive narrative evaluations based on their performance for all 3rd and 4th year coursework. The “Comments” section will be incorporated into the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letter for residency applications, and the “Feedback” will serve to provide meaningful feedback to the student on his/her performance on the Clinical Core Clerkship, Longitudinal Preceptorship and Systems-Based Health Care courses, with recommendations for improvement.
All performance evaluations and assessments must be submitted to the Student Affairs Office within four weeks of the conclusion of a course or clerkship. After all evaluations and assessments have been submitted, the Student Affairs Office will then release the course or clerkship grades as soon as possible.
Letters of Distinction apply only to students matriculating prior to August 2014 and are awarded for truly exemplary performance on a Core Clerkship by the Clinical Clerkship Committee. There are no minimum or maximum number of letters awarded in any given clerkship; i.e. several Letters of Distinction or no Letters of Distinction may be awarded on any given rotation. Letters of Distinction are recognized in the student’s MSPE letter for residency applications. Please refer to the individual course syllabi for further details on criteria used to determine a student’s candidacy for a Letter of Distinction.
Please refer to the Policy and Guideline on Progress and Promotion for information on Incomplete Grades and Course Failure policies.
Revised: August 19, 2015
Purpose
The purpose of this section is to provide an overview of the policies and procedures used to collect medical student evaluations of faculty, courses, clerkships, electives, and other educational activities. It highlights the responsibility of the David Geffen School of Medicine and individual medical students to ensure that appropriate feedback is gathered.
Overview
Collecting student evaluations of the medical school curriculum and instruction are crucial to obtaining feedback that can be used to ensure:
Responsibility of the Educational Measurement Unit
The Educational Measurement Unit is responsible for designing and administering evaluations of courses and faculty for all four years of the medical school curriculum. The Educational Measurement Unit is tasked with implementing evaluations that are:
Evaluation methods will be standardized across educational components and years to allow longitudinal comparison of results. Evaluations may include one or more of the following:
Responsibility of Students
Students are required to complete course, teaching, and site evaluations at all UCLA locations. Confidential online evaluations are distributed to students via email and must be completed in a timely fashion. Students may additionally be required to participate in confidential focus groups or other in-person feedback sessions. Students are asked to provide evaluations and feedback on:
Failure to comply with the school’s policy may result in a professionalism concern being placed in the student’s permanent record.
Updated July 2019