Formative assessments in medical education: a medical graduate’s perspective

Generally speaking, there are two forms of assessment in medical education: formative and summative. Formative assessments happen repeatedly throughout the academic semester. They offer valuable qualitative feedback on students’ current teaching–learning outcomes, and accordingly aid faculty to adjust prospective teaching methodologies in order to enhance students’ subsequent learning outcomes [1]. Broadly, formative assessments are administered to: (1) pinpoint students’ areas of strengths and weaknesses, (2) steer prospective directions in teaching and learning, and (3) support self-inspiration to acquire knowledge and skills away from assessment-driven motives. Formative assessments may or may not be computably graded and contribute to the final course grade. They are ‘good’ when minimally graded and ‘best’ when not computably graded at all. When they are minimally graded or not graded at all, students will have the chance to promote evolution of the learning process from merely scoring grades into a process of vivid, productive and dynamic educational experience. By doing so, students, in turn, will have an opportunity to: (1) explore a subject in a more thoughtful fashion, (2) be more investigational in their learning endeavours, (3) invest efforts in creating a holistic understanding of subject, (4) have time to critically appraise preconceived concepts, (5) link new information to already pre-existing knowledge, (6) make associations across scientific disciplines, and (7) promote effective utilization of higher-order skills (critical thinking, problem solving, etc.) to generate comprehensive understanding of course content. In a sense, formative assessments without computable grades eventually support a deep learning attitude which is desired in learning medical sciences. Regardless of whether formative assessments are graded or not graded, students will still be enthusiastically