Practical Guide to Medical Student Assessment »

This practical guide provides a simple, useful reference to commonly raised questions about medical student assessment. The first part of the book provides succinct information on the general aspects of assessment such as purpose and principles of assessment; technical terms such as validity, reliability, and utility of assessment instruments; and how to choose assessment instruments for a given purpose.

Individual assessment instruments are treated in the second part of the guide. The authors focus on about 20 selected assessment instruments currently in use or promising new instruments that are likely to get increased acceptance in future. For each instrument a general description is given, followed by discussion on its uses, limitations, psychometric characteristics, and recommendations for medical teachers. The reference section contains highly selective and well-researched resources, annotated and classified according to their usefulness. Many of these resources are available free on the Internet.

Foreword     vii
Acknowledgement     ix
About the Authors     xi
About this Guide     xiii
Disclaimer     xv
Principles and Purpose of Assessment     1
Assessment in Medical Education: An Overview     3
"Assessment Drives Learning"     3
Purpose Driven Assessment     4
What is at Stake?     5
Key Concepts in Assessment     8
Formative and Summative Assessment     8
Validity     8
Blueprinting     9
Reliability     11
Feasibility (Cost and Acceptability)     13
Special Issues in Assessment in Clinical Medicine     15
Context Specificity     15
Generalizability of Assessment Data     15
Standard Setting     20
Norm Referenced Standard     20
Criterion Referenced Standard     21
A Model for Assessment     22
Assessment of "Knows" and "Knows How"     25
Oral Examination/Viva     27
Description     27
Limitations of Traditional Viva     27
Use With Borderline Candidates     27
Cited Advantage     27
Pertinent Evidence     28
Possible Uses     28
Practical Tips     28
Long Essay Questions (LEQ)     30
Description     30
Strengths of Essay Questions     30
Limitations     31
Recommended Use     31
Evidence     31
Short Answer Questions (SAQ)     34
Description     34
Advantages     34
Limitation     34
Evidence     34
Suggested Uses     35
Practical Tips in Writing SAQ     35
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)     37
Description     37
Advantages     37
Limitations     37
Best Evidence and Practice     37
Imprecise and Difficult Terms to Avoid in MCQ     40
Pre-Submission Checklist for MCQ     41
Extended Matching Items (EMI)     43
Description     43
Advantages     43
Limitations     43
Evidence     43
Practical Tips in Writing EMI     44
Key Features Test (KF)     46
Description     46
Advantages      46
Limitations     46
Evidence     47
Assessment of "Shows How"     51
Long Case     53
Common Practice     53
Advantage     53
Limitations     53
Evidence     53
Short Case     56
Common Practice     56
Advantages     56
Limitations     56
Evidence     56
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)     58
Description     58
Advantages     58
Limitations     58
Evidence     59
Rating Checklist     63
Tips on Writing OSCE     64
Assessment of "Does"     65
Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX)     67
Description     67
Advantages     68
Limitations     68
Evidence     68
Sample Mini-CEX Data Collection Form     69
Suggested Uses     70
Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS)     71
Description     71
Advantages     72
Limitations     72
Sample DOPS Data Collection Form      73
Suggested Uses     74
Clinical Work Sampling (CWS)     75
Description     75
Advantages     75
Limitations     75
Suggested Uses     77
Checklist     78
Description     78
Advantages     78
Limitations     78
Evidence     78
360-Degree Evaluation     82
Description     82
Advantages     82
Limitations     82
Evidence     83
Suggested Use     83
A Sample 360-Degree Evaluation Form     84
Logbook     86
Description     86
Advantages     86
Limitations     86
Portfolio     88
Description     88
Advantages     88
Limitations     88
Evidence     88
Summary of Recommendations     91
Annotated References and Further Reading     95
Index     105