Medical education
Can paediatric medical students devise a satisfactory standard of
examination for their colleagues?
Steven Cunningham
Department of Child
Life and Health, University of Edinburgh, 20 Sylvan Place,
Edinburgh, EH9 1UW, UK
Correspondence to: Dr S Cunningham, Portex Anaesthesia and Respiratory Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Great Ormond St, London, WC1N 3JH, UK. email: steve.cunningham{at}talk21.com
Accepted 18
January 1999
OBJECTIVES
To
determine what standard paediatric medical students would set for
examining their peers and how that would compare with the university standard.
DESIGNSingle blinded
computer marked examination with questionnaire.
SETTINGUniversity
medical school.
SUBJECTSMedical
students during their final paediatric attachment.
INTERVENTIONSMedical
students asked to derive 10, five branch negatively marked multiple
choice questions (MCQs) to a standard that would fail those without
sufficient knowledge. Each 10 were then assessed by another student as
to the degree of difficulty and the relevance to paediatrics. One year
later student peers sat a mock MCQ examination derived from a random 40 questions (unaware that the mock MCQs had been derived by peers).
MAIN OUTCOME
MEASURESComparison of marks obtained in mock and
final MCQ examinations; student perception of the standard in the two
examinations assessed by questionnaire.
RESULTS44 students
derived 439 questions, of which 83% were considered an appropriate
standard by a classmate. One year later 62 students sat the mock
examination. Distribution of marks was better in the mock MCQ
examination than the final MCQ examination. Students considered the
mock questions to be a more appropriate standard (72%
v 31%) and the topics more relevant (88%
v 64%) to paediatric medical students.
Questions were of a similar clarity in both examinations (73%
v 78%).
CONCLUSIONSStudents
in this study were able to derive an examination of a satisfactory
standard for their peers. Involvement of students in deriving
examination standards may give them a better appreciation of how
standards should be set and maintained.
|
Key messages
|
Keywords: medical student; multiple choice examination; standard setting
© 1999 by Archives of Disease in Childhood
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
