Corona crisis: medical students protest against “hammer exam”

In a joint statement, the Institute for Medical and Pharmaceutical Examination Questions (IMPP) and the Faculty of Medicine (MFT) recommended that the responsible ministries postpone the second state examination in medicine, the so-called M2, scheduled for the coming month to 2021. The medical journal first reported about it.

The statement goes on to say that this decision should make it possible “for students already admitted to M2 to enter the practical year (P) directly”. This is also in the interest of the students, so that their studies are not extended, “but also so that they can provide direct and orderly support in the care process in the current emergency”.

According to this recommendation, the students would have to take two exams after the practical year: the M2 and the practical exam M3, as was usual in the past. The Federal Representation of Medical Students in Germany (bvmd), however, decisively rejects this “hammer exam”.

Students demand planning security

Instead, the bvmd, which points out in a statement that numerous students have already volunteered to help in the corona crisis, demands that the M2 “be adopted in accordance with current international examples”. All in all, it is questionable “why, in addition to the anticipated psychological stresses during the COVID19 pandemic, future doctors should be subjected to the immense psychological stress of such a combined M2 and M3.”