Abstract
Background: Assessment of learning has always been difficult, yet an important part of our education system. Curricular guidelines of Medical Council of India lay emphasis on methods of assessment of knowledge and skills in Pharmacology. Advances in scientific knowledge and innovations in educational field that necessitates constant change in medical curriculum.

Aims & Objective: To correlate student's performance in theory and practical of final summative pharmacology examination in M.B.B.S curriculum in order to have a critical insight.

Materials and Methods: Present study is a record-based observational study done at PDU Govt. Medical College, Rajkot, Gujarat. We have taken data for six consecutive years from 2007 to 2012. Based on their performance in terms of percentage of marks, all students in a batch were classified into five categories: 'failed' (F) = <50%, 'borderline passed' (BP) = 50 to 55%, 'passed' (P) = >55 to <60 %, 'passed with first class' (PF) = ≥ 60%, 'passed with distinction' (PD) = ≥ 70%. Descriptive statistical analysis includes percentage; Mean, SD and Median were calculated by Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Association between the percentage of marks in theory and practical in each category were assessed by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Data was analyzed by software Graphpad Prism version 6.01.

Results: Our study showed that there was a lack of significant association in performance in written and practical examination among students in all Categories in all six batches (P>0.05) except in category 'PF', highly significant association was observed in batches 2010 and 2011. Rather, the poorer performance in theory examination, higher marks were obtained in the practical. Such trend is most prominent in 'F' and 'BP' and 'P' categories of students.

Conclusion: The observations of the present study established the subjective nature of both written and practical examination. There is a need for having a relook at the strategies followed in the existing assessment system.

Key words: Correlation; Examination; Pharmacology; Summative