The NAVLE® is not a Final Exam

We often receive questions about how NAVLE test results are used — Does passing the NAVLE mean that a student is an expert in the veterinary field? Is it the right tool to determine a veterinary student’s academic performance? 

The NAVLE is designed to give state and provincial licensing boards one means of assurance that the candidate has achieved the minimal level of competency required for entry-level private practice. The exam consists of 360 clinically relevant multiple-choice questions focused on critical thinking skills. The exam does not measure technical skills such as how to do a suture.

Further, licensing boards may evaluate a candidate’s readiness for private practice based on criteria other than the student’s NAVLE score. Some of these are state and provincial board exams, letters of recommendation and in-person interviews.

Schools seeking to capture information regarding the development of clinical and professional expertise are encouraged to explore a programmatic assessment/systems of assessment approach where, given feasibility and acceptability, multiple sources of information over time can be used to assess students’ abilities to integrate their learning within a clinical context. These sources of information could include, but are not limited to, using simulation, work place based assessments, and other written and performance based measures. More information can be found in a recent consensus statement regarding assessment best practices in health professions education (Norcini et al.). Within a veterinary education related context this has been studied recently by Bok et al.  

These are just a few methods that schools may use to determine levels of student expertise. Schools looking for a more complete picture of their students’ academic performance can utilize both the NAVLE score and other performance measures.