ARE POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS REALLY DIFFICULT? - ITEM ANALYSIS OF MCQs FOR DOCTOR OF MEDICINE IN INDIA
Journal Title: Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 46
Abstract
BACKGROUND Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are widely used for evaluations of knowledge for many professional courses including Medicine. Construction of appropriate test items is a challenge in preparing quality multiple choice questions. Item analysis provides valuable feedback data on validity of multiple-choice questions. Aim- The present study was conducted to evaluate the Difficulty Index (DIF-I), Discrimination Index (DI) and Distractor Efficiency (DE%) of the multiple-choice questions (items) of previous postgraduate medical entrance examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS A list consisting of 50 MCQs was taken from standard question bank (memory based) of Physiology, usually followed by postgraduate aspirants and administered to undergraduate students (n= 97). The result of student’s performance in these MCQ based unit test was entered in MS Excel 2007. Each item was analysed for three parameters: Difficulty Index, Discrimination Index and Distractor Efficiency. Study Design- Observational cross-sectional study. RESULTS In the present study, after analysis of data 28% of the MCQs were difficult, 20% were good, 26% were excellent and 26% were easy with Difficulty Index. 58% were excellent and 10% were good with Discrimination Index. 46% had at least one non-functional distractor. CONCLUSION Item analysis of MCQs of postgraduate entrance examinations demonstrated that Difficulty Index was neither too high nor too low. Discrimination Index was high, and Distractor Efficiency was good. Hence, we proposed that for formation of appropriate test items, question bank in the form of quality MCQs with negative marking should be prepared and their post validation, data to be collected.
Authors and Affiliations
Poonam Kumari, Richa Niranjan
Keywords
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- EP ID EP548008
- DOI 10.14260/jemds/2018/1103
- Views 97
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