Item analysis of final theoretic exam and health professional licensing exams of “Ach” Medical University graduates / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

BackgroundHealth professional licensing was introduced in Mongolia in 1999. Medical school graduates shouldpass the health professional licensing exam (HPLE) to be registered. It was informed that HPLEsuccess rate has been decreased for last few years among graduates who passed final theoreticexam (FTE). There has been no research conducted to explain the reasons of such trend. Thisresearch aims to conduct a comparative assessment of MSQs used for both HPLE and FTE.GoalTo analyze examination and test to identify the level of medical knowledge of students who graduateas medical doctor at “Ach” Medical University during 2011- 2015.Materials and MethodsThis is a cross sectional descriptive study. it employed a statistical analysis of 2950 MSQs (24version) that were used for the HPLE by the Health Development Center of the MOH (N=16)and FTE by the “Ach” Medical University (N=8) between 2011 and 2015. Test sheets of HPLE(N=728) and FTE (N=686) were assessed in order to identify a reliability of tests, difficulty index,discrimination index using QuickSCORE II program of the test reading machine with a mode of“Scantron ES-2010”.ResultsThe success rate was much higher in FTE than it in HPLE between 2011 and 2015. The successrate of HPLE decreased dramatically starting from 2013 (87%) to 2014 (4%) and 2015 (24%) whilethe same rate of FTE was stable and almost 100%.FTE’s reliability coefficient of 2011-2015 years meets requirement when it’s 0.92-0.96. HPLE’sreliability coefficient of 2013 and 2014 years don’t meet requirement.From all of the MCQs that has been used in FTE‘s 97% and in HPLE’s 80% are positive discriminationindex which means possible to identify medical school graduates knowledge.ConclusionOur findings confirmed that the success rates of HPLE among medical school graduates are beingquite low.Reliability coefficient of HPLE tests were less reliable (КР20=0.66-0.86) than FTE (КР20=0,92-0.96) and particularly tests for 2014 and 2015 were more difficult and were with high percentage ofnegative discrimination.Test score between HPLE and FTE of 2011-2015 is direct linear correlation.