NEWS
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
WVSOM ’ s New Testing Center Allows Medical Students to Prepare for Board Exams
This summer , the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine ( WVSOM ) celebrated the opening of the newest addition to its Lewisburg campus : a 26,756-square-foot Testing Center . The first new construction on the school ’ s campus since the WVSOM Student Center opened in 2016 , the Testing Center serves as a central location for first- and second-year medical students to take course quizzes and exams and practice for national board exams .
The centerpiece of the building , which connects the existing Center for Technology and Rural Medicine to the school ’ s Clinical Evaluation Center , is a 234-seat testing hall filled with partitioned , 3-footwide carrels designed to give students privacy and to ensure the integrity of the examination process .
In the past , WVSOM administered exams in two classrooms . David Meadows , MBA , WVSOM ’ s chief financial officer , said the school has outgrown its previous testing environment and that the Testing Center will make WVSOM ’ s testing process more efficient .
“ The new building provides a more secure and individualized testing environment for students than the previous classroom functionality ,” Meadows said . “ A facility that provides singular testing spaces , as opposed to separating students in a large classroom , is the optimum process .” the testing hall will help them get used to sitting in a place for four hours , buffered by walls , having somebody on either side of you , in an environment that ’ s similar to the Pearson VUE or Prometric sites where they take their licensing exams .”
The Testing Center has six accommodation rooms for testing students who have additional needs — for example , students whose health conditions require them to eat or drink while taking an exam or who require isolation due to illness . Additionally , the center contains offices for staff of WVSOM ’ s National Boards Office and Exam Center and for selected employees of the school ’ s Information Technology Department .
The building also includes spaces where students can gather to study or socialize .
“ We ’ ve put in place soft seating in non-testing parts of the building designed for students to congregate , relax , and create a community environment ,” Meadows said . “ We expect that these areas will become hangout spaces .”
Raeann Carrier , PhD , WVSOM ’ s director of National Boards Office and Exam Center , helped plan the center . She said its configuration is designed to reproduce the experience of taking national board exams at external locations , giving students a sense of familiarity when they take the COMLEX , a series of standardized examinations required for licensure for the practice of osteopathic medicine .
“ When it ’ s time for board preparation , students will have practice exams in the facility ,” Carrier said . “ Taking practice assessments in
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