Evaluation of medical assays by multiple-choice questions: Example of 10-years’ experience of a North African Country

Abstract

Construct: Authors examined the use of multiple choice question tests in assessment of undergraduate students, and made a docimological evaluation of the quality of the tests. Background: Moroccan universities are gradually integrating multiple-choice questions as a method of evaluation. At the Faculty of Medicine of Marrakech-Morocco, this type of test is used to assess medical students’ knowledge, in addition to easier large-scale assessments and automatic correction, test reliability and validity are major qualities of multiple-choice questions, their important disadvantage is that they are difficult and time-consuming to construct. The aim this study was to report the authors experience in assessment of undergraduate students and to make a docimological evaluation of the quality of the tests.Approach: we conducted an observational study on tests used for the assessment of semiology and pathology tests in urology and nephrology, during 10 years (2007 to 2017), we performed the analysis of the different criteria for writing an assay. Results: six-hundred and forty questions were analyzed in the pathology modules, 56,2% of questions addressed level I of Bloom's modified taxonomy, level II (28,8%), level III (15%)