Patients' perceptions of medical finals

The views of patients, who participated as clinical cases in a final MB examination, were elicited using a structured interview. Patients generally regarded the students and the examination process favourably and such factors correlated strongly with their hypothetical marks for candidates. They were not able, however, to predict the examination outcome for candidates and further analysis suggests that patients and examiners hold different conceptions of student ability. The examination performance of candidates who had psychiatric patients as long cases' did not differ from other students. The implications of these findings are discussed.