An Evaluation of Exam Questions Designed by Faculty Members Emphasizing on the Multiple Choice Question Structure Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences ۲۰۰۷

Background & Objective : Evaluation of educational achievement is an important part of an educational process such an evaluation is possible via holding exams Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) as an objective testing method is the most common tool for evaluating students Hence this study was conducted to evaluate the exam questions designed by faculty members with emphasis on the MCQ structure in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences   Methods : In this descriptive study questions designed by ۱۹۷ nonclinician faculty members were analyzed Data was collected using a checklist including demographic information properties of exam questions and items related to comparing MCQs with design rules of such questions   Results : The results revealed that ۸۱% of the questions developed by faculty members were essay ۵۵۳۲% and ۳۶۵۴% were objective and a combination of essay and objective respectively Among a total of ۵۲۰۸ evaluated questions ۶۴۹۶% contained no structural flaw The most common flaws included ambiguous or unclear question stems (۱۵۹۴%) use of negative verb in the stem (۱۲۲۲%) using “all” or “none” among option (۱۰۸۵%) and use of blank space in the beginning or middle of the stem (۱۰۴۱%) Almost ۹۰% of the MCQs were at cognitive level (taxonomy I)   Conclusion : Due to the importance of developing standard questions corresponding to guidelines for MCQs in acceptable exams regular revision of exam questions and further training courses for designing questions is recommended

کلیدواژه ها:

Exam ، Faculty members ، MCQ