Introduction:

The process of adaptation to the European Higher Education Area has brought changes in the assessment of learning outcomes in medical schools and has introduced the concepts of competence assessment and continuous assessment.

Aims:

To describe and analyze, six years after the implementation of the new curriculum, how the continuous assessment process is being carried out in the different subjects of the first three years of the Degree of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, comparing it with what is recommended by the experts in assessment and to propose ways to improve it.

Subjects and methods:

The different assessment activities and tools used in the different subjects are described, showing a great variability and diversification and a compartmentalized assessment. The opinions and level of satisfaction of the coordinators of different subjects regarding the assessment activities used are also shown. Likewise, it is evidenced the effort made by the teachers in promoting improvements in the system.

Results:

The results obtained are compared with the recommendations established in the literature by the experts in medical education, with special reference to the concept of programmatic and institutional assessment and the paradigm of the assessment for learning. The existing difficulties to develop a better continuous assessment are discussed.

Conclusions:

Despite the efforts made and the improvements introduced in the assessment activities, these do not totally conform to what a real continuous assessment must be and we advocate to promote teacher's training programs on assessment in medical education.

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