A national online survey of final year medical students' opinion on the General Medical Council's proposed reforms to the undergraduate medical assessment system

BACKGROUND: The General Medical Council (GMC) is holding consultations in order to decide on the proposed changes to the undergraduate medical assessment. In the last round of consultation only eight medical students formally responded nationally. AIM: To determine the views of a larger proportion of final year medical students across the country on the proposed changes to the undergraduate medical assessment. Method: An online national survey of 10 medical schools, from which 401 responses from final year medical students were collected. Results and discussion: The results indicate the medical students' views on the GMC's proposed changes to standardise the assessment system. The majority of the students were in favour of having a say in any changes to their future assessment. They agreed with the principle that there should be a consistency between assessments at different medical schools and currently their results did not represent preparedness to practice.