1229 



tions have been specifically eliminated by the ECFMG for FMGs/" 

 The first examination was given in 1958. 



FMG Competence: Performance on Examinations. — Specialists on 

 medical brain drain, some of whom are M.D.s, have rendered harsh 

 judgments on the inferior (quality of FMGs. Two criteria are used: 

 FMG experience with examinations, and performance as interns and 

 residents. 



TABLE 34.— PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES ON THE ECFMG EXAMINATION, WAR. 24, SEPT. 15, 



1965, AND FEBRUARY 1969 



Expected distribution of U.S. medical 

 Actual distribution of ECFMG candidates students 



Rangeof scores 



90 percent or higher. 



85 to 89 percent 



80 to 84 percent 



74 to 79 percent. 



70 to 73 percent 



65 to 69 percent 



60 to 64 percent 



Below 60 percent 



Source: This table draws from data presented in, Harold Margulies, and Lucille Stephenson Bloch, "Foreign Medical 

 Graduates in the United States." (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), table 8, p. 54 (for dates Mar. 24, 

 1965 and Sept. 15, 1965), and Rosemary Stevens, and Joan Vermeulen. "Foreign Trained Physicians and American Medi- 

 cine," Wastiington, U.S Department of Health, Education and Welfare, June 1972, p. 131 (Jable 05 for Feb. 1969). 

 Their data was drawn from the ECFMG, "Annual Reports." 



The FMG record on qualifying examinations is not good. Stevens 

 and Vermeulen, who evince a sympathetic concern for the FMGs, 

 write : "A growing body of evidence indicates that as a total group, 

 and for whatever reasons, foreign medical graduates do less well on 

 standard tests than their American counterparts." "^ In generalizing 

 on FMG examination performance, Margulies and Bloch called 

 special attention to the "striking difference" between the predictable 

 initial failure rate (2 percent) of the USMGs and the actual failures 

 (60 percent) of the FMGs who responded to the same questions. (See 

 Table 34.) Scores of the FMGs who did pass were, ]jiore()ver, heavily 

 concentrated around the minimal passing grade, so that, in the words 

 of Margulies and Bloch, "an increase of the passing level to. 80 percent 

 rather than the present 75 percent could eliminate. half of those who 

 now pass." s^* 



FMG performance on examinations has remained consistently poor, 

 over the decade. In 1961, 14,222 FMGs took the ECFMG examination, 

 3T.8 percent passed; in 1963, 19,130 were examined, and 31.6 percent 

 passed; in 1966, 18,988 were examined, and 41.2 percent passed."^ In 

 1968, 19,548 took the examination, and 39.8 percent passed; in 1969, 

 22,598 were examined, and 36.0 passed; and in 1970, 29,950 were ex- 

 amined and 39.8 passed.^^® 



B7S Margulies and Bloch, op cit., pp. 30, 53. 



*'■' Stevens and Vermeulen, op. cit., p. 41. . . j.^. 



B71 Margulies and Bloch, op. cit., p. 53. The authors reproduced a chart from tbe 

 ECFMG Annual Report of 1966 which gives the statistical information on examination 

 scores for the FMGs and USMGs. The asymmetry in performance is striking. 



B-5Ibld., p. 33. 



*^ Stevens and Vermeulen, op. cit., p. 131. 



