A Comparison Study of the Effect of Type of Grading on Clinical Simulation Performance

: The purpose of this study was to determine whether student performance in a simulation varied according to which grading method was used: pass/fail versus numerical grading with calculation into a course grade. Results showed that student performances were not significantly different when the pass/fail graded group was compared to the numerically graded group, even though students knew which grading schema would be used in their evaluation. The study challenges the opinion that students perform better when they know that they will be numerically graded in simulation.