مقايسه روش هاي آزمون چندگزينه يي ، صحيح -غلط و كوتاه پاسخ در دانشجويان پزشكي

Comparison of three exam techniques in medical students: multiple-choice, true false and short answer questions

In most studies the validities of different methods for student assessment have independently been evaluated from each other. In this descriptive-analytical research, 1372 medical students were asked by the three types of questions, so that the result of each method can be compared to that of the other two for each student. Nine classes from different curricula were randomly selected and in each of the them, 30 questions for 10 selected topics were distributed, to a total of 270 questions. The analysis of the studentsʹ scores after excluding questions with a discrimination index of less than 0.3, showed that the most valid assessment method was the short-answer question (r=0.685). The kappa coefficients of the short-answer method and the other two methods are in the ʹfair" range of agreement. The highest coefficient of contingency is between the multiple-choice and true false questions (0.402). The percentage of correct answers is the lowest in short-answer questions (53%) and the highest in true false questions (65%). The higher percentage of incorrect answers in multiple-choice (32%) compared to the true-false (26%) questions can be the result of the students being confronted with alternative choices in multiple-choice questions, which apparently encourages them to choose one without using the relevant knowledge. In conclusion, it is recommended to use short-answer and true false questions as the main components of examinations, instead of only multiple-choice questions, so that studentsʹ learning and recall are tested and they are not misled.