Introduction: Medical educators have serious concern about the decline in physical examination skills of undergraduate medical students. Though formative assessments act as an educational tool to improve students' performance, data to establish their educational benefits in recording pediatric physical examination skills are lacking. This study was conducted to analyse the competency gaps in documentation of the physical examination skills and to assess the effect of formative assessment on case sheet documentation. Methodology: This comparative study was conducted on fifty undergraduate students of sixth semester undergoing paediatric clinical posting. During the first session students' examined a standardized patient and documented the findings in a case sheet. Marks were awarded based on checklist. Feedback was provided based on the case record. The same teaching learning program was conducted in the second session and results were compared. Results: Documentation regarding Central nervous system (4.22+0.932) examination was the area of concern noted in our study.The perception of the students' about their proficiency in various components of physical examination assessed with the questionnaire was statistically significant (p<0.001). Formative assessment had a statistically significant effect on the performance and marks of students' (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that formative assessment helps identify the competency gaps and increases the proficiency in documentation of pediatric physical examination skills. Adequate frequency of formative evaluation with immediate feedback has a beneficial effect on the students' performance.

Introduction: Documenting pediatric history taking is an important competency required of a medical undergraduate student. Feedback is a powerful tool if provided while students are in the process of learning to document history taking. There is insufficient data in medical education to analyze the areas of concern in pediatric history taking. This study was conducted to identify and analyze the areas of concern in Pediatric case sheet writing and to assess the effect of formative assessment on case sheet writing skills. Methodology: The study was conducted as a comparative study among sixth semester undergraduate students who underwent Pediatric clinical posting for one month. By the end of first 15 days students were made to interview a standardized patient and document history taking in the case sheet and marks awarded based on a checklist. Their views were collected through a questionnaire. Feedback was provided before the start of next session. The same teaching learning schedule was repeated during the second half of posting and results were analyzed. Results: The areas of concern were growth and development (mean 2.76), immunization (mean2.87), nutrition and personal history (mean 2.92). Analysis of test scores established that formative assessment had a statistically significant positive effect on Pediatric case sheet writing skills (p<0.001). Perception of the students regarding their understanding of various components in history taking assessed through questionnaire is significant following feedback (p<0.001). Conclusion: Formative assessment done at periodic interval helps the instructor to assess the students' achievement skills and to identify and correct the concern areas. Structured formative assessment as an educational tool significantly enhances the undergraduate medical students' pediatric history documentation skills.