Comparison of traditional and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) exams in terms of clinical skills assessment and attitudes of dental students of Qazvin dental school

A practical exam is important for evaluation of university students but there is not any satisfaction of traditional exams among clinical teachers. There are limited studies done for modification of traditional exams. This study aimed to compare the traditional and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) exams in term of clinical skills and satisfaction among dental students. Evaluation of thirty dental students was done with OSCE and traditional exams. A student was undergone oral medicine exam in the traditional form (10 questions) and OSCE (with ten stations). After the exam they fill questionnaire regarding their experience of the two methods. Data was analyzed with SPSS V.18. Mann-Whitney test, T test, chi square and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. In the OSCE group, scores of questions in the field of cognition was higher and psychomotor was lower than the traditional exam (p=0.001). OSCE is better stimulator of clinical situations and its stressful environment. Despite mismatch found between traditional exams and medical educational goals, most of universities apply this method. it is recommended to use OSCE method in evaluation of all fields of dentistry.