NAVLE Grading Scale on Midterm Year One Veterinary Exam?

[tequilamockingbird98]

Today, a day before my class's midterm, one of our professors showed us a grading scale, that has the lowest passing grade at 72%, and put the grades in terms of terms of letters. She said that the grades would not be entered as percentages, but rather the letter that correlated with a range of percentages ( meaning someone who got 70% would be in the same grade category as someone who got a 50%,) .

She said that this is the NAVLE grading scale. I am not familiar with the grading scale for the NAVLE and find it strange that our midterm would be graded like it.

The exam has 25 questions at 1 point each, the grading scale is below and the E and F categories would be considered failing:

A.23.5-25 correct answers
B.21.5-23.5 correct answers
C.19.5-21.5 correct answers
D.18-19.5 correct answers
E.17.5 correct answers
F.<17.5 correct answers

Has anyone had experience with grading like this on exams in vet school before?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[bbeventer]

NAVLE is scored Pass/Fail. Sure there is a range in the passing category, but no one ever asks you what you scored on the NAVLE, they are only concerned about you passing it.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

She can grade in any way that's acceptable to the school.......Ultimately it doesn't really matter beyond pass/fail, so who cares if a 70% is the same letter grade as a 50%? You'll know what questions you got right and wrong, so you'll know what to work on and what you did well on.

 

[deleted498041]

NAVLE is scored Pass/Fail. Sure there is a range in the passing category, but no one ever asks you what you scored on the NAVLE, they are only concerned about you passing it.

Doesn't the actual score that equates to passing change each year, depending on the bell curve of scores they get? Maybe that's what her professor means.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

Doesn't the actual score that equates to passing change each year, depending on the bell curve of scores they get? Maybe that's what her professor means.

NAVLE doesn't use a bell curve: "The NAVLE uses a fixed, criterion-referenced passing score, and is not graded on a curve. This means that each candidate's performance is measured against a fixed standard, and the passing point does not vary based on the performance of other candidates." I believe the score of what is a passing grade (usually 425/800) may change if the questions that year are a little easier (that's the criterion referenced score), but there's no bell curve......if 50% of the students get a passing grade, then only 50% of the students will pass.

 

[deleted498041]

NAVLE doesn't use a bell curve: "The NAVLE uses a fixed, criterion-referenced passing score, and is not graded on a curve. This means that each candidate's performance is measured against a fixed standard, and the passing point does not vary based on the performance of other candidates." I believe the score of what is a passing grade (usually 425/800) may change if the questions that year are a little easier (that's the criterion referenced score), but there's no bell curve......if 50% of the students get a passing grade, then only 50% of the students will pass.

Oh weird, I have no idea where I got that information from then.

 

[JaynaAli]

Oh weird, I have no idea where I got that information from then.

I think the actual passing score does change year to year but not because of a bell curve. From lower on the page that was quoted above, it says "The percentage of questions that a candidate has to answer correctly in order to pass ranges from 55% to 65%. The actual passing score is adjusted for each of the forms of the NAVLE, and for each administration of the NAVLE, to account for slight differences in difficulty between the forms. This ensures that each candidate's score is valid and reliable, no matter which form of the examination they take."


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app