[Evaluation of graduates in medicine, in knowledge considered basic by faculties, at the end of the course of the Escola Paulista de Medicina].

A growing consensus exists in Brazil about the need of a qualification work prior to medical practice. On the other hand, some members of the faculty and student body of medical schools are against this kind of skill control because they think that their teaching and learning is effective. At the Escola Paulista de Medicina, one of the best ranking Schools of Medicine in Brazil, we asked to 39 departments of the Course of Studies of Medicine to provide 6 questions about concepts that the faculty considered fundamental knowledge for medical practice. Then, an examination with 234 questions was applied to 82 volunteers out of the 100 graduates of the Medical School. All the volunteers presented correct answers to more than 50% of the questions, and 90% answered correctly to more than 60% of the questions. Such results suggest that the students retained a good proportion of the concepts considered essential for practice by the faculty. Even so, almost 100% of them applied for residence training programs.