Background: The traditional viva examination which is still predominantly used in most of the medical institutions as one of the assessment methods has some demerits like lack of standardization, objectivity & reliability. The process involves many faculty members from respective departments. Hence there can be variations in the time allotted to each student, number of questions asked, and difficulty level of the questions. These can be resolved by structuring the oral examination to make it a better assessment tool. The present study was conducted to introduce structured oral examination (SOE) as a novel assessment tool to first year M.B.B.S. students in Physiology and evaluating the process by taking feedback from the students and faculty. Material and Methods:All the subjects [first year M.B.B.S. students (n=100)] were initially assessed by traditional viva. Feedback in the form of a questionnaire was collected from the students. Questionnaire included various questions based on Likert scale and numerical value for each response was decided. Topic for the structured oral examination was decided

Introduction: The topics related to sexual attitude and reproductive health are not commonly and openly discussed. The scarcity of having open discussions especially with parents results in lack of awareness among adolescents about contraception, sexual values, beliefs and behaviour. First year medical students are usually in their last years of adolescence. In future, they are going to communicate with their patients on sexual health matters. Hence, it becomes essential to understand their own perspective regarding this. Aim: To understand the attitude of first year medical students towards gender, sexuality, sexual health needs and their information seeking behaviour. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire.The study population comprised of 314 1st year medical students aged between 17- 20 years, at Smt. Kashibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India.The questionnaire included sections on communication within family and friends, personal attitude towards sexuality and gender and information seeking behaviour. Statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results: Total 314 first year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) students (135 males, 179 females, mean age=18.35 years) participated in the study. More than 90% of students were interested to be in a relationship with opposite sex, yet more than 50% of them did not want to be involved in premarital sex as it was against their religious beliefs. More number of boys (65.93%), as compared to girls (38.55%), agreed that it’s ok to have sex before marriage with proper contraceptive measures. Maintenance of virginity until marriage was important for girls (56.98%) as compared to boys (37.04%) which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Students lacked communication with their parents on the topics of sexuality. A 95.86% used ‘internet’ to seek information on sexual health matters. Sexual problems (72.61%) and genital hygiene (73.89%) were the maximally searched topics on internet. 64.33% of students were interested in attending a formal course regarding sexual/reproductive health. Conclusion: Adolescents’ attitude about sexual matters is guided by their religious beliefs. There is a dearth of communication between the adolescents and their parents on sexual health matters. Majority preferred seeking information from friends and/ or via internet which can be unreliable at times.

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