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Introduction Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) have been introduced with the stated objective of assessing the clinical skills acquired by students during internships. Our objective was to assess whether the scores obtained during the summative OSCEs of medical students are associated with having completed an internship in the corresponding disciplines. Methods Cross-sectional study assessing the results of the summative OSCEs during the 2021–2022 academic year in Poitiers university (France). Ten stations (5 for each student) were performed. A survey was carried out at the end of the OSCEs and collected: internships carried out, stress level, difficulty level experienced at each station, previous participation to formative and summative OSCEs, supervised clinical examinations during internships and participation in consultations. Results Out of the 220 students participating to the summative OSCEs, 182 (83%) answered the survey. The scores obtained in interrogation, communication, therapeutic education and procedure stations were higher when the student had completed an internship in the corresponding disciplines than if he had not (p < 0.01 for each). Eighty-seven (47.8%) had participated before to at least one formative OSCE and 145 (79.7%) to at least one summative OSCE. There was no significant difference in the overall OSCE score according to earlier participation to formative OSCEs (11.1 ± 1.9 vs. 11.5 ± 2.1, p = 0.16) or summative OSCEs (11.4 ± 2.1 vs. 11.1 ± 1.67, p = 0.47). Conclusion Success in OSCEs was associated with previous internships in the corresponding disciplines, suggesting the ability of OSCEs to assess the student’s clinical skills acquired during internships.

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