Olympiads: How RSU punishes students who do well

The title of this post might be a little dramatic, but I think it's still rooted in truth. In this blog post I'd like to talk about a thing called 'Olympiad' in the anatomy and histology courses at RSU, and how it actually punishes people who do well in the courses.

Let me explain how it works.

If your grade average is 4-9

If the average of your colloquium grades in histology or anatomy are 4-9, AKA you passed but weren't perfect, you get the automatic cumulative grade, no need to do the exam. Basically, the course is done and no need to worry about it anymore! Your course grade will be the grade average.

If your grade average is 9,5+

If your grade average is 9.5+, you’re in luck. You’ll be kindly invited to go to the Olympiad! In the Olympiad you’ll be asked a question from all the topics you’ve had in all semesters of the course. If you can answer, you get a 10 for your final grade. If you can’t, you get a 9.

Well, what if you are fine with having a 9? Can you skip the Olympiad? Sure. But then you’ll have to do the final exam.

Direct quote from RSU e-studies:

"Students can get the following benefits during the semester:

1) By attending 100% of the demonstration Labs remotely, and 50% of the semester's weekly Labs in person on-site, as well as passing the colloquiums in the designated time with the grade excellent and half and with distinction (9.5-10), the student will be nominated for the Olympiad of the subject, which takes place before the examination period; if student fails the Olympiad, student doesn’t fail in Exam, but receives for it the next lowest grade – excellent (9); the student is permitted to not show up for the Olympiad, but then he doesn’t keep any benefits during the examination period, namely, - the student takes the full Exam.

!! Students of the “9-10” benefit group in the Olympiad get 1 microspecimen of appropriate degree of difficulty and without the knowledge are required to demonstrate also the logical thinking and common understanding of the subject.

!!! Students who have failed the colloquiums during the cycle also qualify for a cumulative grade, and it is calculated for them from the sum of all successful (second or third retake designated by the Dept) grades!"

So… If you get a 10 for each colloquium because you studied more than 95% of the semester, you get rewarded with an extra examination, and if you don’t show up for it, you’ll have to take the exam.

Let me remind you, someone who got a 4 average = barely passed each colloquium (or even failed one), will not have to take the exam.

This system is extremely unfair to students who perform well. To receive a 10 average grade, you must have gotten a 10 in 4 different colloquiums in histology, and 6 different colloquiums in anatomy. Someone who achieved this, in my opinion, deserves a 10 final grade, regardless of whether they answered a question (in an extra examination) correctly or not.

Students, in order to not have to perform the Olympiad, are purposefully doing worse in colloquiums. Is this not… silly? This has been going on for ages. People from years ago were doing this same thing. Purposefully doing poorly in colloquiums in order to have a worse grade. In which medical school should this be the norm? In RSU, it is. Unfortunately.

Hopefully this will change in the future. The topic has been brought up in semester leader meetings, and hopefully it will bring about it a change one day. Of course, I won’t be there to experience the change (since I’m almost done with anatomy and histology), but I hope for future students the course structure will make more sense.

If you want to check out more posts about the anatomy or histology courses, check out these posts: