Internal Consistency of Medical Students’ Scores in General and Baisc Science Exams, Kerman University, Iran

• Main Authors: A haghdoost, A Esmaeili
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services 2009-02-01
• Series: Journal of Medical Education
• Subjects: MEDICAL EDUCATION, IRAN, VALIDITY, CLUSTER ANALYSIS, DISCRIMINATION INDEX
• Online Access: http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/jme/article/view/730
• ISSN: 1735-3998; 1735-4005

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">Background and purpose: Course-based assessment is a method to gather, analyze, disseminate, and use course data to improve student learning. We assessed the associations between medical students’</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">scores in basic sciences and general courses in a university in Iran and compared these scores with their scores in comprehensive exam.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">Methods: We collected the scores of medical students in their courses and also in their comprehensive exam in Kerman University in eight consecutive years (1995-2002). Using a hierarchical cluster analysis and discrimination index, the internal consistency of students’ scores was assessed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">Results: Generally, females were more successful. In addition, age had a strong negative correlation with academic achievement. The temporal variations in students’ achievements were more or less constant. Students’ scores in anatomy, biochemistry, histology, immunology, medical English, microbiology and physiology had the greatest discrimination indices and also stronger intra-cluster correlations.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">Conclusion: It seems that a cluster analysis and the discrimination index are powerful approaches to be used in a course-based assessment and to check the validity of students’ scores.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">Key words: </span><span style="font-size: 6.5pt; font-family: Arial;">MEDICAL EDUCATION</span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">, I<span style="font-size: 6.5pt;">RAN</span>, </span><span style="font-size: 6.5pt; font-family: Arial;">VALIDITY</span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">, </span><span style="font-size: 6.5pt; font-family: Arial;">CLUSTER ANALYSIS</span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Arial;">, </span><span style="font-size: 6.5pt; font-family: Arial;">DISCRIMINATION INDEX</span></p>