Assessment of the effect of changes in examination questions types on student performance in medical pharmacology: a six years retrospective study

ABSTRACT

Assessment of student performance has been made in the two examinations in pharmacology held annually for a six year period from 1986-1993 and the results correlated with the content of the different examinations of multiple choice questions [MCQ] and short answer questions [SAQ]. Results indicate that there is a very strong negative correlation between student performance and the percentage of MCQ in each examination. This is in contrast to previous published reports from other parts of the world which indicate a better performance in MCQ rather than SAQ. Linguistic, cultural and educational factors may contribute to the results obtained. Further studies are clearly needed to assess this trend