Constructing the Exam-Cons Exam

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In Part Three of this educational module, the focus is on creating valid examination questions, known as test items. The aim is to design items that effectively assess students' competencies and knowledge while adhering to item writing conventions. The presenter, leveraging significant experience from exam committees, emphasizes crafting clear, relevant questions that test applicable knowledge over rote memorization. <br /><br />Key points cover the necessity of aligning exams with modular, course, and program objectives to ensure they assess the competencies required in real-world scenarios, like making clinical decisions or differentiating treatments. Attention is given to ensuring question stems are straightforward and focused, avoiding extraneous details that can cause construct-irrelevant variance—a situation where non-relevant factors affect a student's exam performance.<br /><br />Other critical aspects discussed include the importance of having plausible distractors in multiple-choice questions, ensuring responses are mutually exclusive and grammatically consistent. Emphasis is placed on avoiding grammatical cues or unequal lengths in answers that might inadvertently hint at the correct response.<br /><br />The module also explores various item formats beyond typical multiple-choice, like multiple correct responses, hotspot questions, fill-in-the-blank, and matching, each offering unique ways to better gauge higher-order thinking skills and clinical competencies.<br /><br />Finally, the presenter underscores the importance of careful proofreading and reviewing of test items to minimize errors and ensure that they accurately assess students' understanding of the material. The discussion illustrates how well-constructed exams should lead to clear, fair, and comprehensive assessments of student knowledge and skills.

Keywords

examination questions

test items

item writing conventions

competencies assessment

clinical decisions

plausible distractors

mutually exclusive responses

item formats

higher-order thinking

proofreading