AN ONLINE TRAINING SYSTEM FOR THE STUDENTS OF PHARMACY PREPARING TO THE FIRST STAGE OF THE COMBINED STATE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM

Abstract

A system of online-training for the students of pharmacy of Bucovinian State Medical University (BSMU) preparing to the first stage of the Combined State Comprehensive Exam is proposed and discussed. The system embraces three sub-stages: 1) preparation of the students during regular tuition of a subject; 2) pre-exam preparation of the students; 3) pre-exam control of the level of students’ readiness and knowledge. In the framework of the first stage, the teachers accumulate the database of questions taken from the Testing Centre exam questionnaires. The teachers prepare students using such materials and provide a preliminary control of the student’s readiness to the exam by the admittance procedure preceding the final module control. Besides, additional consultations are being provided to the students with a lower academic performance. At the second sub-stage, the teachers explain students the exam structure and the background of the BSMU system of academic virtue. A Code of Moral and Ethnicity of the BSMU Students and the responsibility for academic fraudulence and cheating during the exam are also explained during this sub-stage. Besides, it includes a repetition of the theoretical basis of subjects and an analysis of the typical errors committed during previous control tests. Then a series of pre-tests follo­wed by extended consultations for the students with lower academic results should be provided. At the final stage the students pass the combined control tests based on the Testing Centre questionnaires, modified and new MCQ composed by the corresponding subject teachers of BSMU. This stage is aimed to find the students relying exclusively on simple cramming or those who try to fraud (the risky group). Special attention should be given to the latter (fraudulent) group of students in the form of additional explanations, reprimands, and oral or written notification of possible expulsion due to this fraudulence. This system was tested in the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 academic years and proved its efficiency. The results of two latter academic years related to the online preparation were commensurate and close to those for 2018 and 2019, when the students passed regular classroom preparation. It should also be underscored that the BSMU results were higher than the corresponding indexes of the national results for 2021. That is why the tested online system of preparation for the students of specialty “Pharmacy and Industrial Pharmacy” has been implemented in BSMU to ensure high quality of preparation of the students of pharmacy to the first stage of the Combined State Comprehensive Exam.