Post-application Quality Analysis of MCQs of Preclinical Examination Using Item Analysis

Abstract

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) have considerable role in the preclinical medical assessment, both formative as well as summative. This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to observe the quality of MC items (completion type) of anatomy, biochemistry and physiology used in preclinical undergraduate medical examinations of 2012 and 2013 of a public university of Bangladesh. Each MC item had a stem and 5 options, and 1200 options were analyzed for difficulty and discrimination indices. Total 556 options were false statements (distracters) and were analyzed to observe their effectiveness as distracter. The study revealed that 18.67% of options were with appropriate difficulty (0.660.80). Highest frequency (43.5%) of difficulty indices was in easy class interval (0.911). Over all frequencies of items of three subjects in the ascending order were difficult, appropriate, marginal and easy as per their difficulty indices. Satisfactory or better discrimination indices (=0.20) were observed in 29.33% options. The mean difficulty and discrimination indices observed were respectively 0.82±0.18 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81 to 0.83) and 0.13±0.14 (95% CI 0.122 to 0.138). Out of the options, 6.75% had negative discrimination indices. Items with difficulty index around 0.60 had maximum discriminatory power (up to 0.68) and more difficult as well as easy items had less discriminatory ability. Out of the distracters 83.45% were observed effective and the mean effectiveness was 22.3±18.7% (95% CI 20.75% to 23.85%). The study recommended using the method and findings to improve the quality of the items leading to development of a standard Question Bank.

Pengembangan Tes Matematika dengan Konteks COVID-19 untuk Siswa SMP/MTs Kelas VIII

“…Akibatnya butir soal ini tidak mampu membedakan antara siswa yang berkemampuan tinggi dengan yang berkemampuan rendah. Apabila soal ini cenderung sulit maka bisa dijadikan pertimbangan penyebab rendahnya daya beda mengingat butir akan memiliki daya beda yang maksimal apabila memiliki tingkat kesukaran moderat (Sim dan Rasiah, 2006), sehingga relasi antar keduanya bukanlan relasi linear namun mendekati bentuk kubah atau piramid (Rasiah & Isaiah, 2006;Pande, Pande, Parate, Nikam, & Agrekar, 2013;Habib, Talukder, Rahman, & Ferdousi, 2017;DiBattista & Kurzawa, 2011). Namun hasil ujicoba menunjukkan bahwa butir ini tergolong dalam tingkat kesukaran sedang.…”

Item analysis of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) from a formative assessment of first year microbiology major students

“…One of the challenges of departments in the sciences especially microbiology is to teach adequate knowledge and practical skills and help students develop analytical and professional skills, and this is achieved through teaching, learning and assessment [1]. Assessment when done correctly is a powerful tool that facilitates learning outcomes, achievement of educational goals and ensures the students observe the effectiveness of the educational programme [2].…”

Assessment and Evaluation of Hybrid Education for Mechanical Engineering by Items Analysis of Summative Examination on Firefighting Systems during Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Every assessment format has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the assessment design. The best assessment method must meet five criteria which include reliability, validity, acceptability, feasibility and educational impacts on learning and practice (Habib, et al, 2016;Patil, et al, 2016). Rao et al (2016) presented an item analysis of MCQs to assess an assessment tool in medical students.…”