Has there been a change in the knowledge of GP registrars between 2011 and 2016 as measured by performance on common items in the Applied Knowledge Test?

The aim of this study was to assess whether the absolute standard of candidates sitting the MRCGP Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) between 2011 and 2016 had changed. It is a descriptive study comparing the performance on marker questions of a reference group of UK graduates taking the AKT for the first time between 2011 and 2016. Using aggregated examination data, the performance of individual 'marker' questions was compared using Pearson's chi-squared tests and trend-line analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse changes in performance over the study period. Changes in performance of individual marker questions using Pearson's chi-squared test showed statistically significant differences in 32 of the 49 questions included in the study. Trend line analysis showed a positive trend in 29 questions and a negative trend in the remaining 23. The magnitude of change was small. Logistic regression did not demonstrate any evidence for a change in the performance of the question set over the study period. However, candidates were more likely to get items on administration wrong compared with clinical medicine or research. There was no evidence of a change in performance of the question set as a whole.

Comparing performance among male and female candidates in sex-specific clinical knowledge in the MRCGP.

BACKGROUND: Patients often seek doctors of the same sex, particularly for sex-specific complaints and also because of a perception that doctors have greater knowledge of complaints relating to their own sex. Few studies have investigated differences in knowledge by sex of candidate on sex-specific questions in medical examinations. AIM: The aim was to compare the performance of males and females in sex-specific questions in a 200-item computer-based applied knowledge test for licensing UK GPs. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional design using routinely collected performance and demographic data from the first three versions of the Applied Knowledge Test, MRCGP, UK. METHOD: Questions were classified as female specific, male specific, or sex neutral. The performance of males and females was analysed using multiple analysis of covariance after adjusting for sex-neutral score and demographic confounders. RESULTS: Data were included from 3627 candidates. After adjusting for sex-neutral score, age, time since qualification, year of speciality training, ethnicity, and country of primary medical qualification, there were differences in performance in sex-specific questions. Males performed worse than females on female-specific questions (-4.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -5.7 to -2.6) but did not perform significantly better than females on male-specific questions (0.3%, 95% CI = -2.6 to 3.2%. CONCLUSION: There was evidence of better performance by females in female-specific questions but this was small relative to the size of the test. Differential performance of males and females in sex-specific questions in a licensing examination may have implications for vocational and post-qualification general practice training.