The impact of COVID-19 on the postgraduate exit examination in a clinical subject

The year 2020 world experienced the rise of a new pandemic COVID-19 beginning. It started in India in early March. Maharashtra state saw a lockdown from March 2020.  It has affected all the aspects of life in India including economy, patient care and medical education. The whole working system of hospitals had to be changed and most of the hospitals were divided into COVID and non-COVID parts. This article is an effort to study the perceptions of postgraduate medical students in the department of medicine on the exit examination at the end of three years of residency in a medical college in Pune. Along with the postgraduate student’s perceptions, views of examiners are also studied under four aspects protective measures during examination, assessment of knowledge using case scenarios, student’s experience of case presentation without physical presence of patients and overall satisfaction with the novel method of examination.