Qualitative analysis of multiple-choice tests held by the Pediatric department of the Tabriz Dental Faculty in 2023-2024

Abstract

Introduction: written tests form the central core of evaluation of medical students. Among these, especially multiple choice questions (MCQs) are used more because of the objectivity in scoring. The quality of these questions and providing feedback to professors and students is very important. Due to the fact that the exam analysis in Tabriz Dental faculty is quantitative and is limited to statistics and figures, we decided to carry out this study to qualitative analysis of multiple choice questions (MCQs) held for students of the general dental course by the Pediatric Department of Tabriz Dental faculty in 2023 and 2024. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, all the questions of the final written exams of the undergraduate student held by pediatric department of Tabriz Dental Faculty of in the 2023 and 2024, in the form of a census in terms of 22 indicators related to structural rules of question design and writing rules of the exam and 5 criteria related to The content of the test, including content coverage or alignment with the lesson plan, content relevance, difficulty factor, distinction factor, and the desired value for each deviation option will be evaluated.

Results: The average difficulty coefficient and difference coefficient of questions in 255 questions related to 6 exams that were analyzed were 0.74 and 0.25, respectively. Most of the questions were asked in the form of four-choice questions. In 67% of the questions, the rules of Millman were fully observed in the design of the questions. 100% of the questions were designed in line with the lesson plans of Pediatric Department.

Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the quality of the design of the questions in the four-choice tests of the Pediatric Department in 2023 and 2024 did not have the maximum usefulness and needs to be improved. It can be suggested to hold empowerment workshops for faculty members in order to improve the quality of exams.