Open-book tests: search behaviour, time used and test scores.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Assessment Methods

Background:

• Increasing medical knowledge necessitates competency-based education.
• Open-book tests are becoming essential for assessing complex problem-solving skills.
• Traditional closed-book tests cannot evaluate information retrieval and application behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between medical students' reference usage during open-book tests and their academic performance.
• To analyze search behavior, defined by consulting references, in relation to test outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed 816 second- and third-year medical students.
• Operationalized search behavior by counting questions where references were consulted.
• Collected data on time spent per question and overall test scores.
• Employed Spearman's and Pearson's correlation analyses to determine relationships.

Main Results:

• Students consulted references for 87% (second-year) and 73% (third-year) of questions.
• Average time per question was 5.0 (second-year) and 4.3 (third-year) minutes.
• No significant correlations were found between reference consultation frequency and test scores.

Conclusions:

• Both high- and low-performing students frequently utilized references.
• The time allocated per multiple-choice question (approx. 5 minutes) may be excessive.
• Further research is required to determine optimal open-book test durations and effective reference utilization strategies by high-achieving students.