RESEARCH LIBRARY

Academic Medicine: Volume 97 - Issue 8 - Pages 1219-1225

Since 2012, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) has maintained a policy of ≤ 6 attempts on any examination component. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the appropriateness of existing USMLE retake policy.

Applied Psychological Measurement: Volume 46, issue 2, page(s) 571-588

This study evaluates the degree to which position effects on two separate low-stakes tests administered to two different samples were moderated by different item (item length, number of response options, mental taxation, and graphic) and examinee (effort, change in effort, and gender) variables. Items exhibited significant negative linear position effects on both tests, with the magnitude of the position effects varying from item to item.

Applied Psychological Measurement: Volume 46, issue 6, page(s) 529-547

The current simulation study demonstrated that the sampling variance associated with the item response theory (IRT) item parameter estimates can help detect outliers in the common items under the 2-PL and 3-PL IRT models. The results showed the proposed sampling variance statistic (SV) outperformed the traditional displacement method with cutoff values of 0.3 and 0.5 along a variety of evaluation criteria.

Journal of Educational Measurement: Volume 59, Issue 2, Pages 140-160

A conceptual framework for thinking about the problem of score comparability is given followed by a description of three classes of connectives. Examples from the history of innovations in testing are given for each class.

Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice

This article aims to answer the question: when the assumption that examinees may apply themselves fully yet still respond incorrectly is violated, what are the consequences of using the modified model proposed by Lewis and his colleagues? 

Academic Medicine: September 2020 - Volume 95 - Issue 9 - p 1388-1395

This article aims to assess the correlations between United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) performance, American College of Physicians Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) performance, American Board of Internal Medicine Internal Medicine Certification Exam (IM-CE) performance, and other medical knowledge and demographic variables.

Academic Medicine: Volume 95 - Issue 9 - p 1396-1403

The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations of all required standardized examinations in medical education with ABFM certification examination scores and eventual ABFM certification.

Journal of Educational Measurement: Volume 57, Issue 2, Pages 216-229

This article presents two generalizability-theory–based analyses of the proportion of the item variance that contributes to error in the cut score. For one approach, variance components are estimated on the probability (or proportion-correct) scale of the Angoff judgments, and for the other, the judgments are transferred to the theta scale of an item response theory model before estimating the variance components.

Academic Medicine: Volume 95 - Issue 1 - p 111-121

This paper investigates the effect of a change in the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 timing on Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) scores, the effect of lag time on Step 2 CK performance, and the relationship of incoming Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) score to Step 2 CK performance pre and post change.

Academic Medicine: Volume 88 - Issue 11 - p 1670-1675

From 2007 through 2012, the NBME team reviewed literature in physician–patient communication, examined performance characteristics of the Step 2 CS exam, observed case development and quality assurance processes, interviewed SPs and their trainers, and reviewed video recordings of examinee–SP interactions.  The authors describe perspectives gained by their team from the review process and outline the resulting enhancements to the Step 2 CS exam, some of which were rolled out in June 2012.