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Electives Grading Guidance | UMass Chan Medical School

Grading in fourth year (Horizon Phase) Electives at the T.H. Chan School of Medicine is determined by the Elective Director and is not centrally dictated.  This document is intended to provide guidance to Elective Directors about grading practices. 

  • Elective final grading (to appear on the transcript) may be Credit/No Credit or have tiered grading (Fail/Pass/Honors/High Honors.)
    • The tier “cut-offs” or credit threshold is determined by the Elective Director. An example of tiering threshold values is (<65=F, 65-80=P, 81-89=H, 90-100=HH.)
  •  A student performance evaluation (SPE) must be completed at the conclusion of the rotation. This may be a percentage of the grade or may be formative (non-grade bearing). For some electives the SPE is the only grading component.
    • Please review the possible elective SPEs
    • The Elective Director can choose which of the available SPEs is most appropriate for their elective.
    • Examples of how final grading incorporates the SPE might be:
      • SPE = 100% of the grade
      • SPE = 50% of the grade, assignment = 25%, test = 25%
      • SPE = 0% of the grade, project = 50%, test=50%
      • For reference, during the third-year clerkships the SPEs are 45% of the student’s final grade.
  • All Electives must have a consistent grading strategy that is equitably applied across all students each academic year. Changes to grading practices should only be made at the beginning of a new year. 

  • An Elective Director must share the grading scheme with the student at the beginning of the rotation and must be able to answer grading questions.

  • Questions from Elective Directors about Elective grading can be directed to the Horizon Electives Director (electives@umassmed.edu) or the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUME@umassmed.edu).

  • Away Electives (UMass Chan Students at other Schools): Our preference is that our Oasis evaluation (SPE) forms and grading scales (CR/NCR/F/P/H/HH) are used but we will accept external evaluation forms and grades.  The official record and transcript will display our closest alignment within our internal grading system to the outside school’s external grading system.

  • Visiting Students (Other Students at UMass Chan): Grading guidance will come from the visiting student’s institution.