Is rote learning responsible for poor quality of doctors in India?

The system followed in evaluating doctors in India is flawed as its emphasis is mainly on memorization skills rather than clinical skills.

India is facing a severe crunch of quality doctors. Many factors are responsible for the malaise plaguing the medical education system in this country, and the preference to rote learning in the evaluation of doctors is one of them.

So, most of our doctors have reached there not by their clinical skills but on their ability to memorize a significant amount of information.   

Further, the exam pattern has not seen the transformation that advanced countries in the west have adopted and moved ahead of the curve long ago.

Here, the system ignores the humanitarian criterion in selecting would-be doctors and still goes by the age-old rote learning. So, we continue to produce doctors whose evaluation has been done based on their answers in MCQ questions.  

India banks on tests, by checking candidates and analyzing their worthiness for memorization skills rather than the in-depth knowledge of the core subjects.

We still don’t use OSCEs (objective structured clinical exams) for checking medical candidates. Thus we go on producing doctors whose clinical skills remain thoroughly untested till they begin practicing.

These problems are pan-India in nature, and you can’t blame colleges in a particular state in India alone if they are not able to produce well-trained doctors. For example, few medical colleges in Bangalore still prepare question papers seeking knowledge more than asking problems based on real clinical cases. 

Rather than asking the use and impact of various drugs, medical exams instead focus on asking achievements of particular individuals of the domain.

Medical aspirants, however, can minimize the problems arising from this approach by seeking admission in a college that is known for its practical orientation more than theoretical knowledge.  

Some good medical institutes look to address this inherent flaw of the system by letting would-be doctors get real-life exposure to clinical trials and skills.

So, consult with one of the top MBBS admission consultants and find the best medical college for your MBBS dreams.

Admissions Square is known for its reliable medical admission consultancy services along with related educational consultancy services for students seeking admission in any stream or college of choice. Benefit from their domain knowledge and put your career on the right track.