Assessment

Students will be assessed in a programme of informal tutorials and by requested essays during the taught modules.

As part of the continuous assessment exercise, the practicals in medical ultrasound and the patient logs will be written up by the students and marked by teachers.

The following elements will make up the final examination mark for the degree of MSc in Medical Ultrasound:

• a) An examination composed of:-

i) a three hour written paper on Part I;

ii)  a two hour written paper and a one hour MCQ paper on Part II ;

• b) Assessment of clinical competence:-

i)  presentation of the patient log

ii) a clinical examination.

• c) Assessment of the project work:-

i) a written thesis

ii) a vive voce.

Part-time students will take Paper I and Paper II examinations of the first year, and assessment of clinical competence and the dissertation in the second year.

Marks are apportioned to each element in the assessment making up the final classification will be as follows:

Research Thesis and viva voce

In September, students are examined on their research projects. The viva voce examination is conducted by an internal and an external examiner. 

The project work will be written up in thesis form and submitted for internal and external examiners for assessment.  The mark awarded will be based on the quality of the thesis, the student’s comprehension of the work (assessed in the viva voce) and the report submitted by their supervisor on their general performance in the laboratory and related areas (e.g. literature awareness). 

The student will be expected to have demonstrated a competent grasp of the subject and submitted a satisfactory dissertation.  Here satisfactory does not refer to size but to quality.  Attention must be given to presentation - some students have not been awarded their MSc because of careless presentation, e.g. poor spelling, inadequate use of grammar, poorly drawn figures, captions or tables, etc.  Your ability to behave as a professional is being assessed; unprofessional work will not be accepted as suitable for the MSc.

The viva voce will take place in September), the same two examiners will perform the viva voce as read the thesis.  The examination lasts 15 mins and explores the detail of the research thesis and surrounding literature.