Final exams must be comprehensive. Final exams count for 50% of the actual grade for the system.
The following are guidelines regarding test construction:
- All regular and final exams may be multiple-choice questions. The minimum number of possible answers for multiple-choice questions is four or five.
- Given the present style of USMLE Step I questions, at least 50% of exam questions should be written in problem-solving clinical vignette format (e.g., ―A 29year-old patient presents with…‖) rather than just a pure fact-based question (e.g., ―Which of the following is true?‖).
- Questions should be original questions constructed by the faculty member. However, faculty members may use other sources as a guide to how to write appropriate USMLE-style questions.
Several types of multiple choice questions are prohibited due to their lack of use on the USMLEs.
These include:
- ―Which of the following statements is FALSE? (Or ―Which of the following statements is NOT true?)
- ―All the following are true EXCEPT:
- Questions that have more than one correct answer (e.g., ―a and b are true)
Professors must assume that questions from previous exams have been circulated amongst the students through unsanctioned tape recording or photographing of exam debriefing sessions.
Thus, professors are responsible for generating new questions. An effective way of dealing with the fact that a select group of students may have access to former exam questions is to make old exams openly available to all students. If this option is chosen, then faculty must ensure that new exams have questions that are rephrased sufficiently differently from previous exams so that the student has to do more than just memorize the correct answer from previous tests. In addition, any old exams that are circulated should not have the correct answers noted. New tests must also be of sufficient breadth so that students do not just study material restricted to the known test items.
Lab Exams: Professors who opt to give lab exams are permitted to ask oral, multiple choice, short answer, or fill-in-the-blank questions. Essay questions are not allowed.