How are students assessed at USCSD?
A good place to start is with the questions, “Why do we assess?” and “What makes assessment in professional school different from what many students have experienced previously?” The upcoming section is intended to address these questions and give guidance on a few of the assessment types DDS students experience during their first year at USCSD. In a nutshell, the assessment program at USCSD is intended to monitor student progress, positively encourage the learning process, motivate learning, and help students develop skills of self and peer assessment. The combination of assessments a student takes while in dental school helps determine whether he/she has achieved the competencies required of a new dentist. To understand why and how the assessment program is organized it’s helpful to consider a few key elements about assessment first. Assessments are generally designed to ‘measure’ or ‘test’ things that are valued in a curriculum (Shumway and Harden, 2003) Assessment Ch in Fry, 2000).
