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Multiple choice questions are superior to extended matching questions to identify medicine and biomedical sciences students who perform poorly Cover

Multiple choice questions are superior to extended matching questions to identify medicine and biomedical sciences students who perform poorly

Open Access
|Jul 2013

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Average grades and number of students per examination type

Type of exam

MCQ

EMQ

Mixed

Average examination score

6.8 ± 1.5

7.4 ± 1.3

6.5 ± 1.0

Student groups

 Score <6 (%)

21

8

21

 Score 6–8 (%)

45

42

67

 Score ≥8 (%)

34

50

12

Table 2

Overview of total and categorized score of the mixed examination

Total score

N

EMQ core

Ratio EMQ: total

MCQs score

Ratio MCQ: total

≤5

22

5.2 (0.89)

0.60:1

3.4 (0.88)

0.40:1

5–5.5

68

6.2 (0.68)

0.59:1

4.4 (0.79)

0.41:1

6–6.5

164

7.0 (0.60)

0.55:1

5.6 (0.76)

0.45:1

7–7.5

127

7.7 (0.61)

0.53:1

6.7 (0.61)

0.47:1

8–8.5

47

8.2 (0.42)

0.51:1

7.9 (0.52)

0.49:1

≥9

3

9.2 (0.16)

0.50:1

9.2 (0.18)

0.50:1

EMQs and MCQs are presented as mean scores (standard deviation)

EMQs extended matching questions, MCQs multiple choice questions

Table 3

Characteristics of poor (<6), average (6–8) and excellent (≥8) students

Average examination score

<6

6–8

≥8

p value

Sex

0.35

 Men (%)

36

32

41

 Women (%)

64

68

59

Age (years)

19.4 ± 1.5

18.8 ± 1.1

18.6 ± 0.8

<0.001

Examination preference

0.37

 MCQ (%)

52

40

43

 EMQ (%)

28

29

30

 No preference (%)

20

31

26

Average examination score

5.2 ± 0.5

6.9 ± 0.6

8.4 ± 0.3

<0.001

MCQ exam score

4.8 ± 1.2

6.9 ± 0.9

8.6 ± 0.6

<0.001

EMQ exam score

5.8 ± 1.1

7.4 ± 0.9

8.7 ± 0.4

<0.001

Mixed exam score

 Total score

5.3 ± 0.8

6.5 ± 0.7

7.7 ± 0.6

<0.001

 MCQ score

4.3 ± 1.1

5.9 ± 1.0

7.5 ± 0.9

<0.001

 EMQ score

6.2 ± 1.0

7.1 ± 0.8

8.0 ± 0.7

<0.001

Values are presented as mean ± SD

Fig. 1

Age classification per grade for a multiple-choice questions and b extended matching questions in the mixed examination course

40037_2013_68_Fig1_HTML.gif

Language: English
Published on: Jul 11, 2013
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2013 Thijs M. H. Eijsvogels, Tessa L. van den Brand, Maria T. E. Hopman, published by Bohn Stafleu van Loghum
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.