Abstract
BackgroundThe psychometric characteristics of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) changed when taking into account their anatomical sites and the presence of item-writing flaws (IWF). The aim is to understand the impact of the anatomical sites and the presence of IWF in the psychometric qualities of the MCQ.Results800 Clinical Anatomy MCQ from eight examinations were classified as standard or flawed items and according to one of the eight anatomical sites. An item was classified as flawed if it violated at least one of the principles of item writing. The difficulty and discrimination indices of each item were obtained. 55.8 % of the MCQ were flawed items. The anatomical site of the items explained 6.2 and 3.2 % of the difficulty and discrimination parameters and the IWF explained 2.8 and 0.8 %, respectively.ConclusionsThe impact of the IWF was heterogeneous, the Writing the Stem and Writing the Choices categories had a negative impact (higher difficulty and lower discrimination) while the other categories did not have any impact. The anatomical site effect was higher than IWF effect in the psychometric characteristics of the examination. When constructing MCQ, the focus should be in the topic/area of the items and only after in the presence of IWF.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-016-2202-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The psychometric characteristics of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) changed when taking into account their anatomical sites and the presence of item-writing flaws (IWF)
It is of extreme importance to eliminate or, at least, diminish the proportion of the IWF in MCQ present in examinations, to ensure the best possible reliability and validity assessment of the examinees
It is important to take into account the anatomical sites of the same items, because they affect in greater extent the psychometric parameters of the questions independently of the IWF
Summary
The psychometric characteristics of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) changed when taking into account their anatomical sites and the presence of item-writing flaws (IWF). The aim is to understand the impact of the anatomical sites and the presence of IWF in the psychometric qualities of the MCQ. The most common methods to assess anatomy knowledge are: multiple choice questions (MCQs), extended matching questions (EMQs), short essay questions (SEQ), and identifying tagged structures (spotters) in specimens (practical examination). Haladyna et al summarized these rules in a taxonomy of 31 items-writing guidelines to help in the construction of MCQ. These guidelines are divided into five main categories: Content Concerns, Formatting Concerns, Style Concerns, Writing the Stem and Writing the Choices
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