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Related Experiment Videos

Relative or Absolute Standards in Assessing Medical Knowledge Using Progress Tests.

A.M.M. Muijtjens1, R.J.I. Hoogenboom, G.M. Verwijnen

  • 1Dept. of Medical Informatics, Dept. of Educational Development & Research, and Skillslab, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice
|October 19, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Using an absolute standard in health sciences education testing can be precarious. While intended to correct for test difficulty, it led to significant shifts in pass/fail decisions and highly variable failure rates.

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Area of Science:

  • Medical Education
  • Psychometrics
  • Health Professions Education

Background:

  • Norm-referenced (relative) standards are common in health sciences achievement testing.
  • While relative standards adjust for test difficulty, they have drawbacks.
  • Absolute standards are often preferred but their impact needs investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the consequences of using an absolute standard versus a relative standard in health sciences education.
  • To evaluate a developed standard-setting procedure using real-world data.

Main Methods:

  • The study analyzed progress test scores from Maastricht Medical School over eight years.
  • A standard-setting procedure was developed and its performance evaluated.
  • Pass/fail decisions were compared between absolute and relative standards.

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Main Results:

  • Switching from a relative to an absolute standard changed 6% of pass/fail decisions.
  • 2.6% of outcomes shifted from fail to pass, and 3.4% from pass to fail.
  • Failure rates varied dramatically (2%-47%) with an absolute standard, unlike the stable rate with a relative standard.

Conclusions:

  • An absolute standard in health sciences education testing is precarious due to inherent variations in test difficulty.
  • The variability in failure rates highlights the instability of absolute standards when test difficulty fluctuates.
  • Careful consideration of standard-setting methods is crucial for reliable achievement testing in health sciences.