This paper addressed various issues related to the objectivity of student assessment in medical education. The objectivity of assessment was related to all the steps of test development, administration, and results reporting in terms of reliability and validity. Specifically, the objectivity of item formats, representativeness of test content, standardization of test administration, consistency of scoring procedures, and appropriateness of reporting test results were discussed by comparing performance assessment with traditional paper-and-pencil tests. The conclusions were derived from current measurement theories such as standards-based assessment, evidencebased design, and outcome-based assessment. Further, based on Shepard's propositions (2006), the objectivity of student assessment could be achieved by improving the concordance between educational objectives and assessment components such as item types, test contents, and test administration, scoring, and reporting.

Most medical colleges in Korea have been shifting from traditional education to outcome-based education, which is the general trend in medical education. The purpose of this study was to make some suggestions in light of the reality and challenges of student assessment in medical education from the perspective of outcome- based education. First, those who are responsible for student assessment should be diversified to include faculty, residents, students, and evaluation committee members. They need separate roles in educational evaluation, so evaluation competencies are required for them. Second, various methods for evaluation and score interpretation can be used for effective evaluation. We can adopt diagnostic, formative, and summative evaluation functionally, and the norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, growth-referenced, and ability-referenced evaluation based on criteria for score interpretation. Finally, various evaluation domains and test forms can be administered together in the common lectures in the medical school. We can test not only knowledge but also skills and attitudes, with diverse test forms such as supply and performance types.

The clinical clerkship focuses students on developing their ability to perform comprehensive diagnosis and management of patients with common undifferentiated problems by the integration of knowledge and clinical reasoning. Therefore, the clerkship evaluation system should assess their actual problem solving and professional behavior. However, concern remains that clerkship evaluations are imprecise and highly variable. This review is designed to provide faculty members with concepts, options, and a methodology to actively teach and evaluate the clinical clerkship, as well as offer encouragement and inspiration to medical students. We reviewed past and current clinical clerkship evaluations and discuss several tips to improve clinical excellence such as continuity, transparency of the evaluation process, a faculty development program, practical examination of clinical skills, implementation of a checklist for recording exposure and skills, providing prompt and constructive feedback to students, self-evaluation of professional performance, varying multi-faceted assessment combinations, being outpatient clinic-centered, and having dedicated faculty members who give students one-on-one contact with a preceptor.

Since the establishment of the national medical licensing examination board in 1992, the medical licensing examination system has changed enormously and this has had a number of impacts on examination services. All those reforms were aimed at improving the relevance and reliability of the test. Several attempts of the testing system have appeared in the new examination service, and which have also brought about the changes in the medical school curriculum such as introducing integrated courses instead of traditional subjects, using test scores as a reference to the post-graduation selection test. Some examples of changes in the examination system are as follows: 1) choosing three integrated test subjects and outlines of their reference content instead of 15 academic subjects, 2) adjusting the ratio of multiple choice question items to focus more on the problem solving level, 3) introduction of 'one-best answer' single set and 'extended matching type items, 4) item construction based on real clinical cases and real clinical materials. Recently, a clinical skill test system has been introduced to measure examinees' basic clinical skills competencies. Despite continuing efforts, the examination system still has many issues remaining to be solved. These problems include the differential weighting of test items, appropriate threshold for passing, and practicality of pre-testing to stabilize the passing rate and avoid the hazards of newness and undesirably difficult test items.

Clinical skills assessment was recently introduced to the Korean Medical License Examination to test medical school graduates' competencies in clinical skills. Various measures, including research and rehearsals, had been undertaken to prepare for the assessment for several years before the clinical skills assessment was first implemented. The assessment has been repeated annually for about 3,500 examinees over the course of 50 days per year for the past 4 years. The introduction of the assessment had significant effects on education in Korea's medical schools. Many schools have established clinical skills labs and the teaching of clinical skills has also been strengthened. The residents who have taken the clinical skills exam now express more confidence in caring for patients. To improve the quality of the assessment, it should be performed on a year-round schedule and a pilot test and various forms of the items should be introduced.

Before Outcome-based curriculum reform, medical graduate school and medical schools of korea need to understand limit or threshold of outcome-based education's point of view. This article examines the multi-dimensional concept of competence suggested by Stoof and colleagues and discusses about implication for outcomebased education in medical education of Korea. Because Stoof and colleagues's five dimensions of competence reveal various concepts and educational methods of competence. Therefore, It is possible to use to identify the strengths and weaknesses of outcome-based education of Korea as a reference standard. Five dimensions of competence suggested by Stoof and colleagues is consist of 'personal vs. task characteristics,' 'individual vs. distributed competence,' 'specific vs. general competence,' 'levels of competence vs. competence as a level,' and 'teachable vs. non-teachable.' Implication for outcome-based education in medical education of Korea is, first, that It should recognize to outcome-based education as a one of educational models approaching to competence. Second, discussion about competence should be expanded from pre-medical education to graduated medical education and continuing medical education.

Patient safety is achieved through systematic improvement based on the knowledge and willingness of medical professionals. A systematic longitudinal curriculum for patient safety is essential to prepare medical students and professionals. The purpose of this article is to introduce our experience with a 'workshop for developing a patient safety curriculum' and to compare the results with previous studies. The workshop comprising 15 medical professors and patient safety experts met for 2 days. The Consensus Workshop method was applied, collecting opinions from all of the members and reaching consensus through the following stages: context, brainstorm, cluster, name, and resolve. The patient safety curriculum was developed by this method, covering patient safety topics and issues, and teaching and assessment methods. A total of 7 topics were extracted, 'activities for patient safety, concepts of patient safety, leadership and teamwork, error disclosure, self-management, patient education, policies.' Issues, teaching methods, and assessment methods were developed for each topic. The patient safety curriculum developed from the workshop was similar to previous curricula developed by other institutions and medical schools. The Consensus Workshop method proved to be an effective approach to developing a patient safety curriculum.