The epreuves dematerialisees nationales are the French national knowledge examinations sat at the end of the second cycle of medical studies. Taken on tablets by all sixth-year students on the same days, they contribute, together with clinical examinations and the student's course record, to the ranking used to allocate residency posts.
French acronym: epreuves dematerialisees nationales, national examinations taken in digital form
EDN, epreuves dematerialisees nationales
national digital examinations
They are taken nationally on identical papers, in digital form, and cover the clinical knowledge of the second cycle. The syllabus is organised by levels of knowledge, distinguishing what every doctor must master from what belongs to a more detailed command of a subject, which allows the papers to separate a common core from deeper knowledge. The result is one of the components used in the allocation procedure that follows, alongside the ECOS and the assessment of the student's course.
The components are combined into a national ranking. Each student then expresses preferences for a speciality and a regional subdivision, and posts are allocated through the national matching procedure organised by the Centre National de Gestion. This is the moment that decides the DES and therefore the whole of the internat. The examinations thus close the DFASM and open specialist training.
These examinations belong to the French curriculum and are sat by students enrolled in a French faculty. A student who reads medicine in another EU member state follows the examination system of that country and its own route into specialist training, then practises in France through automatic recognition. Anyone considering a transfer into a French faculty during the course should raise the question early with the faculty concerned, since the second cycle is built towards these examinations.
The examinations are often thought of as a final qualification. They are not: the medical degree is conferred by the these d'exercice at the end of the internat, years later. They are also no longer the sole criterion for allocating posts, since clinical examinations and the course record now weigh in the ranking, which changes how the sixth year is prepared.
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