The "
D.V.M. Continuation of Study" requirements/conditions are provided in U of G's undergraduate calendar:
www.uoguelph.ca/registrar/calendars/undergraduate/current/c10/c10dvm-info.shtml. As
ovc2017 has said, in the big picture you must maintain an
overall program average of at least
60% to continue. Going a bit deeper, the detailed requirements are presently essentially as follows:
Phase or Program Average <50% = required to withdraw
Phase or Program Average ≥50% but <60% = repeat phase
Phase AND Program Average ≥60% = eligible to continue
If repeating a phase, it basically changes to:
Program Average <60% = required to withdraw
Program Average ≥60% = eligible to continue
Beyond the above overall requirements, individual courses often have their own separate conditions to pass the course. Many require a simple 50% to pass the class, while some others require 60% (e.g., highly important classes like anatomy). Within the courses, there are also often some individual components with minimum requirements to pass the course (e.g., at least 70% on specific quizzes, pass/fail assessments, etc.). All of these conditions are given in the course outlines, which are currently available on the OVC web site (
Phase 1,
Phase 2,
Phase 3).
Another important detail is that a failure in some courses merely means repeating that
one course,
BUT for some other courses failing that course means repeating the
entire phase (and all its courses). For example, failing
any one of anatomy, physiology, histology, or health management I in Phase 1 could mean repeating
all Phase 1 courses. The official details of how failed courses are handled is provided in the relevant section of the
undergraduate calendar.
I think the above essentially summarizes most of the requirements, evaluation-wise, in order to progress through the DVM program. With that said, it is just my own
simplification, and is only accurate as of the date I have written this post. As always, refer to the undergraduate calendar and course outlines themselves for the current, complete, and
official regulations, conditions, and requirements.
Now, moving on to your question as to what would be considered "
...doing well," grades-wise at least, in the DVM program. That is quite hard to nail down to an exact number, as it varies between years, classes, phases, courses, and individuals themselves (also since I don't think the
final class averages are made available anywhere):
- Years: As the DVM curriculum continuously evolves, the courses, the information therein, as well as how it is taught and evaluated, often changes as well, thereby complicating meaningful comparisons of year to year.
- Classes: As you can see if you look at the stats for admitted students over the years, some classes have higher or lower incoming averages than other classes; I think this generally carries over into the DVM program. For example, the Class of Year A may have a far higher average than the Class of Year B, but a lower average than the Class of Year C. As such, a student who would be below the overall average in one class year, might be above the overall average as compared to a different class year.
- Phases: The phases each have their own challenges, and differ in difficulty and weighting, so I'm sure the average performance differs from phase to phase.
- Courses: As with undergrad, the difficulty between individual courses themselves varies greatly and, thus, so too do the class averages. I don't believe our final overall class averages for courses are made available anywhere, so the best I can do is go off our pre-final exam class averages for classes, which (for my year) generally range from mid/high 70s to high 80s/low 90s. With that said, there are also marks for individuals ranging from the 50s to the high 90s.
- Individuals: Once they've made it into vet school, I think many individuals' own sense of what is doing "well" changes somewhat as compared to undergrad, especially since the volume, time requirements, and difficulty of the material in the DVM program is a large step up from that of undergrad (also since we're no longer stressing about getting in to vet school...). Also, some people will never be satisfied with a mark anywhere under 90, while others may be perfectly happy to cruise along in the 60s or 70s.
So, that's basically a long-winded version way of saying:
it depends... However, my
guess would be that overall class averages are
probably somewhere in the
mid/high-70s to mid-80s, with averages for
individuals ranging from the 60s into the 90s. Again, I know there are people at the lower end of that range that are perfectly satisfied with their grades, while also people at the upper end that
aren't satisfied until their grades are even higher, and vice versa.
Now, going back to the big picture look at things, keep in mind that at the end of it all, so long as one satisfies all the conditions to graduate and completes all the other requirements for licensing (e.g., the NAVLE), that person with an average in the 60s will get the
same piece of paper and become a licensed vet
just the same as the person with the average in the 90s, and both will be
equally capable of going out and becoming a practicing vet. With that said, I'm
not going to pretend that, so long as one passes, grades are
completely meaningless to
everyone, as I'm sure some hiring clinics look at grades, and they can be important as well for things such as internships or further education. However, once one starts practicing, in my view at least I think the importance and relevance of the grades you achieved falls off
precipitously, as your actual practical aptitude as a practicing vet is
far more important (i.e., kind of like once you started undergrad, how many people still cared what grades you got in high school?) There's also the whole separate issue as to how accurately grades reflect and transfer over into real-world success, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms I'm not going to touch at the moment.
As for your concern about it being "
...impossible to know everything that will be tested," I don't think this is actually an issue at all, but rather merely a
natural result of there being
far too much information in the world for any one person to be an expert at
everything (which goes for the DVM program as well). Furthermore, beyond the above, doing "
well" has a lot to do with knowing the
practically important information well, while maybe glossing over some of the less important minutiae. For example, we are taught about
many, many different kinds of bacteria. However, at the end of the day, some are far more important (in a practical sense) than others (e.g, it's probably important that most every vet has a good general understanding of
Salmonella, but they could forgiven for forgetting the details of something like
Nocardia asteroides). Also, keep in mind that for three years of the DVM program
all students learn about
all the different species, even though we then choose a specific stream in phase 4, and most will go out to practice in a more
defined field (e.g., large, small, etc.). Honestly, how many details do you think most small animal vets actually remember about cows? (and vice versa)
Overall, I think the concept of doing "
well" can be far different in the DVM program than undergrad, as it is training for a much more
defined profession, and most people are getting a far better sense of where they want to head, what they want to get out of their education, and what will be practically important for
their future, so everyone's
own sense of what is doing "
well" adjusts accordingly.
You also asked if there are "
...past tests (like in undergrad) where you can get some insight regarding what to focus on?" As with other courses you've probably taken in undergrad, officially: "
no"...take from that italicization what you will...
On the more actually official side of things: most of the profs in the DVM program are really good at identifying what they deem to be the most important information and/or for some the general area they'll be focusing their testing on, as well as sometimes providing past tests and/or sample questions. Beyond that, upper years are also an
invaluable source of information both for what is key to know for the purposes of testing, as well as what is the important information for more practical, real-world purposes. Finally, each course has a list of objectives provided in outlines, which are the key concepts that should be the focus of testing (it doesn't always work out exactly like that, but they most often give a very good idea of the most important concepts on which to focus).
On the more actually official side of things: most of the profs in the DVM program are really good at identifying what they deem to be the most important information and/or for some the general area they'll be focusing their testing on, as well as sometimes providing past tests and/or sample questions. Beyond that, upper years are also an invaluable source of information both for what is key to know for the purposes of testing, as well as what is the important information for more practical, real-world purposes. Finally, each course has a list of objectives provided in outlines, which are the key concepts that should be the focus of testing (it doesn't always work out exactly like that, but they most often give a very good idea of the most important concepts on which to focus).