NATIONAL POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL

COLLEGE OF NIGERIA

REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CONDUCT

OF COLLEGE EXAMINATIONS:
INFORMATION FOR EXAMINERS
REVISED 2021”

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 CONTENTS PAGES

A. INTRODUCTION 3

B. APPOINTMENT OF EXAMINERS 4

C. ELIGIBILITY FOR APPOINTMENT 4

D. SANCTIONS FOR DEFAULTING EXAMINERS 5

E. FUNCTIONS OF EXAMINERS 6-7

F. QUESTION PAPERS 7-8

G. INVIGILATION 8-10

H. PROCESSING THE PART II DISSERTATION 10-12

I. MARKING SYSTEM 12-14

J. CRITERIA FOR AWARDING PASS/FAIL CLASSIFICATION 14-16

K. EXAMINATION RESULTS 16

L. CONTEST OF EXAMINATION RESULTS 17

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A. INTRODUCTION

The National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria was established by enabling law
Cap N59 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 for examination and certification of
Postgraduate Medical/Dental specialists among other functions. Sections 7 (a) and (b)
state that:-

“The Senate shall have responsibility for the running of the academic affairs of the

College including-

a) the organization and control of courses of study at the College and of the
examinations held in connection with those courses; and
b) the award of degrees, diplomas and such other qualifications as may be prescribed
in connection with examinations held as aforesaid.”
Pursuant to these powers, the Senate has prescribed the following examinations in each
Faculty

1. Examinations for the Diploma programmes in different Faculties

2. Primary Examinations
3. Part 1 Fellowship Examinations
4. The Doctor of Medicine (MD) Thesis Defense
5. Part II Fellowship Examinations

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1. Primary Examination: The objective of this examination is to test Basic Science
Knowledge as an indication of the candidate’s readiness for Postgraduate training
in the relevant Faculty
2. Part I Examination: This examination is administered to test cognitive knowledge
and basic professional skills in the relevant Faculty.
3. Part II Final Examination: This examination aims to test the candidate’s readiness
for the responsibilities of leadership in the specialty. Those who pass are eligible for
appointment as Consultants. The format of these Examinations varies from Faculty
to Faculty and the details are provided in each Faculty’s Handbook.

College Examinations take place twice a year. Primary and Two- stage/Screening Part I
Examinations take place in March and September, while other aspects of Parts I, Doctor
of Medicine and Part II examinations take place in April/May and October/November

B. APPOINTMENT OF EXAMINERS

a) COURT OF EXAMINERS

1. Each Faculty shall recommend to Senate for approval, the appointment of a court
of Examiners of 5 to 10 members and the Court shall be charged with the conduct
of the Examinations of the Faculty. The Chairman of the Faculty Board shall be the
convener of the Court of Examiners and shall preside over its meetings. All
members of the Court shall be Examiners but all Examiners need not serve on the
Court. Three members including the Faculty Chairman and Secretary shall form a
quorum.

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 2. The tenure of the Court of Examiners shall be two (2) years renewable for
another tenure of two years only, to run concurrently with the tenure of the
Faculty Board..
3. Other examiners shall be determined by the Business Committee of Senate
and the number shall be carefully related to the number of candidates for the
examination in each case
4. When it becomes necessary to change or replace Examiners, or a member of
the Court of Examiners in-between Senate meetings, the President shall give
approval on behalf of Senate.

C. ELIGIBILITY FOR APPOINTMENT AS EXAMINER

1. Examiners in any particular Faculty shall be Fellows of that Faculty, however in

special circumstances Examiners may be drawn from other Faculties.

2. An examiner must be a Fellow of at least eight years standing.

3. Fellows who are at least eight years post qualification shall be eligible for

appointment as examiners as long as they are active in Clinical practice in their

fields. Fellows who are no longer involved in provision of clinical services or
training shall not be eligible for appointment as examiners.

4. An examiner for part II shall be a Fellow of at least ten years who must have
supervised two successfully defended dissertations

5. In an exceptional circumstance a non-Fellow may be invited as an Examiner

with approval of the Senate.

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D. SANCTIONS FOR DEFAULTING EXAMINERS

1. Examiners who, having agreed to serve at a particular examination, absent

themselves or fail to perform without good cause shall become ineligible for
appointment as Examiners for two years thereafter.
2. Collusion with Candidate: In case of an alleged collusion of an examiner
with a candidate (s), such an examiner shall be banned from participation in
College Examinations subsequently
3. Alteration of Marks: In case of an alleged mark alteration against any
Examiner, this would be referred to the Disciplinary Committee of Senate and
if found guilty, the examiner would be delisted for life in participating in College
Fellowship Examination.
4. In case of an alleged attempt by an examiner to influence the conduct and
outcome of a College Examination, this would be referred to the Disciplinary
Committee of Senate and if found. guilty such an examiner will be banned, for
life, from participating in College Examinations
5. In the case of an alleged endorsement by a supervisor of a work, by a
candidate, which was later found not to have been carried out by such a
candidate, this should be referred to the Disciplinary Committee of Senate and
if the supervisor is found guilty of involvement in the fraud, he/she shall be
barred from all College activities including College Examinations.”
6.Conduct of Examiners: An Examiner is expected to be a role model to other
examiners and the candidates. Any shortcoming observed in any examiner by
the Faculty shall be brought to his/her notice for correction. Failure to heed the

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 advice of the Board of Examiner shall attract a sanction ranging from suspension
for 2 years to outright ban.

E. FUNCTIONS OF EXAMINERS

1. In order to ensure that the bank of College test items grow, every examiner has a
responsibility to prepare and submit questions appropriate for the examinations in
which the examiner is participating.
2. All Examiners shall attend the meeting of Examiners at the beginning of the
Examination and agree on the criteria of assessment, as well as the marking
scheme.
3. At least two Examiners shall independently mark every essay script and the
candidate’s score shall be the average of both their assessments.
4. In Oral and Clinical examinations, each candidate shall be examined by at least 2
Examiners.
5. All Examiners involved in College examinations shall meet within 24 hours of the
completion of each examination to consider the conduct of the examination as well
as compile the results on a Master Marks Sheet which they shall all subsequently
sign.
6. The Faculty Board shall consider all examination results, reports of misconduct,
petitions as well as other matters arising from them and make recommendations
to Senate.
7. In the case of misconduct by candidate(s), the Coordinator/invigilator shall write
a report on each case to the College Registrar and the Faculty Secretary
immediately on completion of the examination in which the act of misconduct took
place. The meeting of the Court of Examiners shall subsequently investigate and

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 report to the Faculty Board who would report to the Senate. The case shall be
referred to the Disciplinary Committee of Senate.
8. Uploading of Assessed Dissertation: “Apart from the Faculty Secretaries
uploading signed Master Mark Sheets on the portal, every Examiner assessing a
dissertation shall upload a detailed assessment of the performance of each Part II
candidate on the portal for candidates to access within 48 hours of the
examinations”. For candidates that have a Provisional Pass, this should include
corrections as appropriate

9. The failure of a nominated Examiner to participate in an examination shall have

no effect whatsoever on the validity of the results of any examination held under
these regulations provided the candidate is examined by at least two bona fide
examiners.

F. QUESTION PAPERS

1. Questions must be free from ambiguity. The papers as a whole shall be so

composed as to constitute a fair test of the candidate’s knowledge of the syllabus.
2. The Court of Examiners shall meet not less than 2 weeks to the date of the
examination to review questions for processing into the question bank, and to
select the test items for the various papers of the next examination.
3. Once the test items for an examination are selected and collated, the contents
must not under any circumstances be disclosed to or discussed with anyone.
4. Each paper must contain all necessary information and instructions for the
guidance of the candidates e.g. time allowed, how many questions may be
attempted and what answer book or sheet to use as appropriate.

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5. The Faculty Chairman is responsible for the correctness of question papers and
must therefore exercise great care in supervising the authoring and banking of test
items.
6. During authoring and banking, Faculty Secretaries shall submit electronically all
selected test items for cloud storage in the College server in the Registrar’s office.
7. Examiners must make available to the College Registrar, the exact source of any
copyright questions used in the examination papers, as soon as the examination
has been held. This is to facilitate copyright permission when these questions need
to be published as past questions.

G. INVIGILATION

1. The Senate shall approve the appointment of fellows who shall be responsible
for the proper invigilation of candidates during the Fellowship examinations
2. It shall be the duty of the invigilators to exercise constant and vigilant supervision
over the candidates.
3. While the Examination is in progress, no persons other than the Coordinator,
invigilators or College officials shall be allowed to enter the Hall and at least one
of the invigilators of each paper must be present during the first and the last 30
minutes of the papers.
4. In the event of ambiguity of questions the Coordinator/invigilator shall seek
clarification from the Faculty Secretary. The time appointed for the examination in
each paper as indicated in time-table must be strictly adhered to and can only be
altered in unavoidable circumstances with the President’s expressed approval.
5. No candidates may leave the examination hall once the examination begins
except to go to the restroom or to the first-aid room; such candidate must be

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 accompanied by a staff of the College to be appointed by the Examination
Coordinator”
6. No candidate shall be admitted after the first half-hour of the examination has
elapsed.
7. If any candidate finishes his/her paper before the stipulated time the
Coordinator/invigilator may, at his/her discretion, allow the candidate to submit his
papers and retire. Such candidate shall not leave the Hall during the first or the
last half - hour of an examination.
8. Candidates shall not remove any examination answer script used or unused from
the Examination Hall.
9. Silence must be maintained throughout the Examination period by the invigilators,
Attendants and Candidates.
10. Smoking shall be entirely prohibited in the Examination hall, as indeed inside all
College Buildings.
11. Candidates must stop writing immediately at the end of the Examination. Any
candidate seen to be writing must be noted and informed of the risk of being
disqualified. Candidates who persist must be reported to the Faculty Secretary.
12. At the close of each Examination, candidates must hand over their scripts and
question papers to the appropriate Coordinator/invigilators as they leave the hall.
Coordinator/Invigilators must check these materials, tick against the attendance
list as they are received from the candidates, arrange the scripts in numerical order
and seal them together with the signed Attendance List in special envelopes
provided by the Academic Department. The Secretary of the Faculty shall keep
records of the scripts received from the Coordinator/invigilators and the scripts
issued to the Examiners.

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 13. Examination Assistants:- In the conduct of Oral and Clinical Examinations, Faculty
Courts of Examiners may retain the services of non-Fellows/non-Medical staff who
shall be remunerated at rates decided by the Senate from time to time.
14. The essay booklets and all examination materials remain confidential even
after the examination. It is of utmost importance that all booklets be returned, and
counted for completeness, by the Coordinator/invigilator immediately after the
examination. The booklets shall be stored by the Examination department of the
College for five years before they are destroyed
15. In case of ill-health during the examination some first aid will be provided and the
case shall be reported to the Registrar and the Faculty Secretary???. College shall
not entertain any request for deferment or refund of examination fees.
I. PROCESSING THE MD / PART II DISSERTATION

1. Candidates for Part II Fellowship Examinations are to upload the approved

proposal, approval letter, Assessors reports and dissertation along with their
application materials for the examination
2. During the period of application, the Academic Department shall review candidate’s
application to confirm correctness of application documents uploaded on the portal.
3. After the close of application, the Academic Department shall compile, for each
Faculty, the list of approved candidates’ proposal assessors and forward it to the
Faculty Secretaries.”
4. The Faculty Secretaries shall vet the applications and grant approval to candidates
that have met all the requirements for the Examinations
5. The Faculty Chairman shall nominate at least one of the examiners from the list of
proposal assessors on the portal.

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6. The Academic Department shall notify the chosen examiners on the portal so they
can commence assessment of the dissertations uploaded on the portal.
7. The examining assessor is to upload on the portal a detailed assessment of
performance of the candidate’s dissertation defense.
8. In case of a candidate with P-1 or P-2 (Referred or Rejected in dissertation
respectively), the dissertation is expected to be represented at the next
examination.

9. In case of P- (Provisional Pass), the candidate shall access the report of his
dissertation report of his dissertation defense uploaded by the examiner in order to
make corrections as appropriate. Once the candidate uploads the corrected
dissertation, the disposing examiner is notified on the portal to confirm if the
corrections were properly done. If properly done, the assessor shall recommend
conversion to Full Pass.

10. In cases of candidates with P-1(Referred, to be rewritten, represented and

defended at a subsequent examination) and P-2 (Rejected, to follow approved
Proposal guidelines and represent at a subsequent examination), the candidates are
expected to represent their dissertation at a subsequent examination

11. Corrections are expected to be made within 3 months of the date of the Senate
meeting that approved the initial result. Failure to make requisite corrections within
3 months necessitate the candidate to reapply for a subsequent examination and
resubmit the dissertation for a fresh assessment as if he failed the previous
examination.

12. Candidates with a Full Pass shall be notified via the portal to upload a clean copy of
his dissertation on the portal. After payment of requisite fees, copies of the
dissertation in the appropriate Faculty color shall be produced for the College library.
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I. SCORING SYSTEM

(i) In scoring out of 10, 7 = very good pass P+1 A

6 = good pass P+ B

5= pass P C

4 = borderline P- D

3= fail P-1 E
(ii) In scoring out of 20, 14 = Very Good Pass P+1 A

12= Good Pass P+ B

10= Pass P C

8 = Borderline P- D

6= Fail P-1 E

(iii) In scoring out of 30, 21 = Very Good Pass P+ 1 A

18= Good Pass P+ B

15= Pass P C

12 = Borderline P- D

9= Fail P-1 E
(iv) In scoring out of 60 (using single unit score per item e.g. in MCQ tests).

42 and above = Very Good Pass P+1 A

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 36-41 = Good pass P+ B

30-35 = Pass P C

24-29 = Borderline P- D

23 and below =Fail P-1 E

(v) In scoring out of 100 (using single unit score per item e.g. in MCQ tests).

70 and above = Very Good Pass P+1 A

60-69 = Good pass P+ B

50-59 = Pass P C

40-49 = Borderline P- D

39 and below = (Fail, no cross- compensation allowed)

P-1 E

(vi) Dissertation

P+ Accepted

P Accepted with minor corrections

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 P- Provisionally Accepted, requiring reassessment after correction
P-1 Referred
P-2 Rejected.
J. CRITERIA FOR AWARDING PASS/FAIL CLASSIFICATION

A. PRIMARY

The Pass Score is as determined by standard methods (Modified Angoff).

To pass the Examination, a candidate must obtain a score equal to or greater than
the Pass score.

B. PART 1

The Part 1 examination consists of 3 sections:

(i) Written papers (ii) Clinicals / Practicals (iii) Orals

The Pass Score for each of these and the overall examination is as determined by
standard methods (Modified Angoff).

To pass the Examination, a candidate must:

1. Obtain a score equal to or greater than the Pass score in each of the sections.
2. Obtain a score equal to or greater than the Overall Pass score in addition to
obtaining a score equal to or greater than the Pass Score in Clinicals.

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C. PART II

The minimum components of the Part II examinations are the Dissertation and Viva Voce
(Orals). For other Faculties, it may include Written papers and Clinicals / Practicals.
(1) The Viva Voce section may have one or two parts as
may be determined by

the Faculty Board or Court of Examiners. The aggregate of all the parts shall be
considered together.
(2) The Dissertation Defense may be regarded as:
P+ Accepted
P Accepted with minor editorial corrections
P- Provisionally accepted with significant errors to be reassessed after
corrections or

P-1 Referred, to be rewritten, represented and defended at a subsequent

examination

P-2 Rejected, to follow approved Proposal guidelines and represent at a

subsequent examination.

To pass the overall Examination, a Candidate must have his dissertation Accepted and
pass the viva voce.

(a) However, a candidate who has his dissertation accepted P or P+ level but fails
in the Viva Voce, shall be referred in viva voce only against the next
Examination.
(b) Candidates whose dissertation needs some significant correction i.e. P- level
but who has passed the Viva Voce shall earn a Provisional Pass. Minor

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 editorial/typographical errors shall not affect a candidate’s full pass rating. No
candidate may earn a reference in viva voce as well as a provisional pass in
dissertation.
(c) A candidate having passed the Viva Voce but whose dissertation needs a major
restructuring shall be referred in the dissertation only against the next
examination.

K. EXAMINATION RESULTS

1. The Court of Examiners with other Examiners shall meet within 24 hours of the
conclusion of examination and consider the results and matters arising thereof.

2. A Master Mark Sheet shall be generated on the portal by each Faculty Secretary.
Results will be entered on this electronic sheet, downloaded, signed by all
Examiners and uploaded.
3. Thereafter, the result of the examination and matters arising thereof shall be
presented to the Faculty Board for consideration and then make recommendations
to the Senate.

4. The Pass list of each examination as recommended by Faculty Board shall be

generated from the portal by the College Registrar but the information shall remain
provisional until approved by Senate.

5. The Master Mark Sheets, signed by the Court of Examiners concerned, shall
become the property of the College and shall be placed in the custody of the
Deputy Registrar (Academic). The marked scripts shall be preserved in the
examination department. Thereafter they may be destroyed.

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6. After Senate approval, the Pass list shall be circulated to all accredited training
institutions and sister Colleges.

7. Potential Examiners are advised to acquaint themselves with the latest edition at
any time.

L. CONTEST OF EXAMINATION RESULT

In the event of a Candidate expressing dissatisfaction with his /her result and request
for a remark of his/her paper:

1. The candidate shall make the request in writing within two weeks of the release of
result by Senate to the College Registrar
2. The candidate shall pay a prescribed fee as determined by the senate

3. The request shall be forwarded to the Faculty Secretary, who will appoint two
independent examiners of cognate experience who had not examined the
candidate previously in that examination to remark the candidate’s paper(s) using
the same marking and scoring guidelines.
4. The result shall be collated by the Faculty Secretary and presented to the Court of
Examiners, and shall be forwarded to the College Registrar who shall present the
result to the Senate for approval.

The College Registrar,

National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria,

Km. 26 Badagry Expressway, Ijanikin,

P.M.B. 2003,

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Ijanikin, Lagos.

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