- In Toulouse, the famous medical entrance exam will finally take place in mid-June.
- But students contest its organization, in waves of 900 candidates at the Parc des Expos.
- They also oppose shortened, planed tests, and suggest other solutions.
During the famous and very selective entrance exam in medicine, students play the culmination of at least one year, more often two years, of sacrifices and cramming. This year in Toulouse, the candidates - 2,700 spread over three faculties (Purpan, Rangueil and Pharmacy) for 255 "elected" upon arrival - will be doubly anxious. And not necessarily the idea of entering a world where we find ourselves on the front line during epidemics.
They learned about ten days ago that the competition would go well, with weeks of delay due to coronavirus. It will take place from June 15 to 19 at the Parc des Expos, where three waves of 900 students will follow one another to floor their ruthless “QCM”. Organizational conditions that worry an informal group of students. They launched a petition to have the terms of the competition reviewed. By thinking in particular of the “fragile” students, or of whom a close one is, who could take risks to participate, or, worse, give up.
But the criticisms also relate to the examination itself. Usually the competition consists of five tests, lasting from 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. There, candidates will play their professional future in a single session of 1 hour 15 minutes. Elie Serrano, the dean of the Rangueil Faculty of Medicine, recognizes that "strong organizational constraints take precedence over educational constraints". If the number of tests has been reduced, it is so that the corrections and the results of which fall early enough to affect the students (of medicine and other fields) before the start of the September school year. And if the exam time is so short, it's simply for their safety.
But the petitioners do not give up, they find the solution inequitable. "We haven't had classes since March 12," says Lou *, a doublante. For many, the university library was a refuge where we could not go to review. Some have had to work with large families or in difficult conditions ”. In short, the dice will be loaded upon arrival on the exam sheet.
Cancellation or weighting
Lou and his comrades suggest other solutions: "The outright cancellation" of the final exam to keep only the marks of the first semester, "knowing that the rankings generally move little between the two", for example. But the students are aware that such a decision would give rise to many challenges. The other option, according to them, would be to weight the grade for the second semester. And she is more likely to succeed. "We are awaiting the response of the ministry to a request for modification of the coefficients of the second semester, shortened by confinement", indicates in fact Elie Serrano.
The last alternative advocated by the slingers is "to increase the numerus clausus" in the three Toulouse faculties which each admit this year only 85 pupils in second year. Especially since the numerus clausus is doomed to disappear.
* The first name has been changed
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