Testing the Foundation, Helping Students Succeed

            VEA helps predict success, struggle

 

The veterinary student sitting in Misty Bailey's office was struggling.

“I’m really worried that I’m not going to pass the NAVLE,” the student said. “What can I do?”

This third-year student at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine had just received results from the Veterinary Educational Assessment (VEA), an ICVA test used to measure a student's understanding of core science concepts in veterinary medicine. The results can help predict whether a veterinary student is on-track to pass the NAVLE.

Dr. Bailey, PhD, the curriculum and assessment coordinator at the college, talked with the student about study habits and ways to improve how well the student understood key ideas.

“Yes, you can read it over and over, but can you recall it later?” she asked the student.

The VEA result proved to be right: The now-former student failed the NAVLE on the first attempt. But this recent graduate passed the NAVLE on the second try, she said.

“I believe that student would not have gotten so close on the first NAVLE take had they not had that information from the VEA and been able to focus their study,” she said.

ICVA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Heather Case, DVM, said it's heartbreaking to talk with a veterinary school graduate who is six figures in debt and has failed on multiple attempts to pass the NAVLE. The VEA can warn students and give them a chance to adjust, as more and more schools are discovering.

“We've actually had students ask if they could have their school give that test, but it's not something that the students can sign up for,” she said. “It has to be the faculty.”

Testing Muscle Memory

The students who take the VEA answer 240 multiple-choice questions on anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathology, microbiology. The ICVA offers three testing windows—in fall, winter, and spring of each academic year.

Anita Casey-Reed, program manager at the ICVA, said the VEA helps veterinary school faculty see which students need help on fundamental sciences as well as identify broader trends that they can use to adjust the curriculum.

Faculty want to know how well their students retain their lessons, Casey-Reed said. They want their students to succeed, and they want to help turn out competent veterinarians.

Casey-Reed said that, as the students become veterinarians, they will want to recall foundational knowledge automatically—like muscle memory. The ICVA recommends against studying for the VEA so students test their understanding, rather than their ability to memorize.

Each question is written by an expert who teaches on the topic in a veterinary school, vetted for accuracy, and evaluated with feedback. While some schools administer their own assessments, she said the ICVA focuses on creating the best examinations that incorporate expertise from across the field of veterinary medicine.

“I think more and more schools are recognizing the value of having assessment expertise,” she said.

Research has previously shown that assessments can help predict success on medical licensing examinations for human and veterinary medicine.

Assessments Aid Good Decisions

Jennifer Lapin, PhD, is the director of educational evaluation and assessment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, where taking the VEA is optional. More than three quarters of third-year students took it this year.

“The correlation between their performance on the VEA and the NAVLE is pretty high,” she said.

Because taking the examination is voluntary, the university uses the results only to help students identify their own weaknesses and focus their study, Dr. Lapin said.

“The students appear to get a lot out of it,” she said.

At the University of Tennessee, where the test is mandatory, Dr. Bailey said the CVM has been using the VEA results to help evaluate curriculum changes rolled out since 2014. The data can help guide adjustments such as adding courses on certain topics or providing faculty development.

“The VEA is part of the overall data portfolio that will help us make good curriculum decisions,” Dr. Bailey said.

While there has been tremendous growth in veterinary colleges' assessment expertise during the past decade, some schools remain in early phases of deciding how to best assess their students.

Dr. Case said the ICVA’s assessments provide quality control. The results help assure students and educators that their institution is delivering the education expected.

Casey-Reed described the VEA as a measurement, not a pass-fail test. While the tests given in individual classes can vary tremendously, the VEA provides some broader perspective.

“People won't know if they're going to be able to succeed until they have some idea where they are in the process,” she said.