ABSTRACT
Background : The content in the comprehensive examination which is the graduation exam for the KKU medical students has to be the minimal essential knowledge. The post-test item analysis will be able to reflect this qualification of the test examination for further development.Objective :To assess the overall reliability—as well as the difficulty index and discrimination power for all the questions—of two MCQ exam papers (150 items/paper) used as comprehensive examinations for 6th-year clinical sciences by medical students at Khon Kaen University, Thailand.Design : Descriptive studySubjects : 300 MCQ items of the comprehensive examination for the 6th-year Khon Kaen Medical studentsResults : Most of the questions were of a ‘moderate’ to an ‘easy’ degree of difficulty, corresponding to the objective of the comprehensive exam, which is to assess the minimal but essential knowledge of medical students before they can graduate. Notwithstanding, the overall reliability of each paper was low compared to the recommended values for summative evaluations (i.e. \>0.7 for a teacher prepared test and 0.9 for a standardized test). Conclusion : This assessment will be used as a guideline by the Comprehensive Examination Committee to improve the quality of future tests. Additionally, since we analysed the achievement of the students in different disciplines, this baseline data can also be used as a feedback for each Department when reviewing the curriculum, setting teaching objectives and improving the learning context.