Examinations
All final examinations in the Medical School pre-clinical curriculum and Medical School clinical National Board Subject Examinations are given in the name of the College and are conducted by the Office of the Registrar. The office is responsible for the distribution of examinations, starting time, ending time and collection of examinations.
Students are required to sit for examinations as scheduled. If a student is ill and is unable to sit for an examination he/she must notify the senior associate dean or associate dean of Student Affairs prior to the start of the examination. If a student is ill, he/she may be required to have the students own personal physician submit a written report of the illness to a senior associate dean in Student Affairs to be granted an authorized absence. In cases of emergencies (e.g., death of immediate family member) the senior associate dean or associate dean of Student Affairs must be notified and may authorize absence from the examination. This includes the final exams for Blocks 1-8, CABS, LACE, Apex and all National Boards.
Students who have an excused absence from an examination for any reason are required to notify the registrar and to find out the date and time of the make-up examination. Dates and times of make-up examinations are determined by a senior associate dean in Student Affairs.
Unauthorized absences will result in a grade of Fail for the examination.
Pre-clinical Curriculum
The Office of the Registrar is responsible for ensuring that only students registered in the courses and authorized to sit for the examination receive an examination.
Examination in all pre-clinical courses are given officially only at the conclusion of each block. Departments will inform students in writing at the beginning of the course the relevant weight to be given to various examinations and evaluation procedures used to determine the final grade. The number of hours of examination in a course is usually proportional to the amount of time given to the course in the curriculum. Total examination time for each academic block will be about twelve hours. In general, multiple choice examinations will follow the format of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Narrative evaluations may be submitted by departments for Pre-Clinical courses but are not obligatory.
Core Clinical Clerkships and Electives
A grade and narrative summary are rendered by the faculty for all academic work on the Core Clinical Clerkships and full-time clinical electives. Departmental examinations, oral examinations and clinical skills examinations may be required at the discretion of the department and the course director. National Board Subject Examinations are required in the Core Clerkships of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry and Family Medicine and are administered by the Office of the Registrar. Subject examinations are given at the conclusion of the clerkship. The weight given to the National Board Subject Examination in determining the final grade is at the discretion of the department. However, a passing grade is required of each student before a final grade for the course can be entered on the student's transcript. All make-up and repeat examinations of the National Board Subject 
Examinations for course work taken during the first three years of enrollment must be completed by June of the year prior to the students graduation. Any grade of Fail, Incomplete, or Deferred rendered during the students last year of enrollment must, in any event, be cleared of all course requirements by April of the year of graduation. This policy has been established by the Committee on Student Promotions and Academic Achievement so that all Incomplete and Deferred grades would be cleared by July of the student's senior year. It also allows these grades to be included on transcripts and dean's letters required for residency applications. There are no exceptions to these policies.
National Board Subject Examinations are given on the last day of the respective rotation. All students are required to take the examination at the conclusion of the rotation. Examinations can be changed only with the permission of a senior associate dean in Student Affairs. The student is responsible for scheduling the make-up examination with a senior associate dean in Student Affairs and the Registrar. At the time of the make-up examination, the student must be officially enrolled at BCM. Students wishing to have their examination re-scored for any reason must pay fifty dollars to the National Board of Medical Examiners. The request for re-score must be made to the Registrar and due process usually takes four weeks.
Students wishing to repeat a National Board Examination for their own evaluation must do so at their own expense on a regularly scheduled National Board date. The second National Board score can not in any way modify a prior grade submitted by a department. In the Pre-Clinical Curriculum, National Board Subject Examinations may be administered at the discretion of the individual department and course director. At the present time, the pre-clinical departments do not require National Board Subject Examinations.
At the conclusion of the Pre-Clinical Curriculum, all students are required to take the Basic Science Comprehensive Examination developed by the National Board of Medical Examiners. A passing grade is required on this examination before a student can begin core clinical clerkships. Students failing to receive a passing grade are offered a make-up examination usually administered in February of a student's second year. The repercussions for failure to pass the Comprehensive Examination a second time is left to the discretion of the Committee on Student Promotions and Academic Achievement, but may result in a student repeating a substantial part of the Pre-Clinical Curriculum.