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EFFECTS OF PUBLISHING MULTIPLE‐CHOICE QUESTIONS ON THEIR SUBSEQUENT ITEM ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
Bandaranayake R. C.,
Buzzard A. J.,
Marshall V. C.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1990.tb07509.x
Subject(s) - medicine , index (typography) , publishing , set (abstract data type) , multiple choice , control (management) , statistics , significant difference , mathematics , management , law , world wide web , computer science , programming language , political science , economics
A prospective study was carried out to determine what effects publication within a multiple=choice question (MCQ) book of 63 selected items from a bank had on their performance in subsequent examinations. A closely corresponding group of 63 unpublished questions set both before and after publication of the book was used as control. The specific outcomes studied were those on famility index, r biserial discriminating index and differences in performance between abler (upper 25%) and weaker (lower 25%) candidates. The mean facility index of the published questions inreased significantly (P < 0.01) after publication, while no significant change was observed in the mean facility index of control questions (P > 0.05) or in the mean discriminating index of published (P > 0.05) and control (P > 0.05) questions. Contrary to expectations the mean facility index of published questions increased, after publication, to a greater extent (P < 0.01) for abler andidates than for weaker candidates. The study supports the hypothesis that publiation of questions from a bank makes them easier to answer. The practice of adjusting the cut‐off mark for passing according to the proportion of published questions in a make greater use of the MCQ book in preparing for an examination.