Introduction: Medical students should be assessed for their knowledge, comprehension and psychomotor skills. Traditional examination overlooks these points and mainly reflects the global performance of the students. Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is the new system of assessment which is objective, valid and reliable tool for evaluation of teaching and learning. Aims &objective: To evaluate the role of OSPE as an assessment tool for secondyear MBBS students in the subject of Pathology.
Materials and Methods: OSPE was introduced for second year MBBS students for the formative assessment in the subject of Pathology. Two factors were considered for determination of the effective outcome i.e. performance of students and feedback from the students and examiner.
Results: OSPE was accepted by all the students as a fair assessment tool which covered a wide range of knowledge. OSPE was less stressful to the students, increases confidence, there is no fear of examiner and should be constructed frequently. The percentage of failure was very low. Although the confidence level was very high, the score related to analytical thinking and application of present knowledge to the clinical practice was low.
Conclusion: OSPE is an effective assessment tool for the evaluation of teaching and deep learning.
