The Board Examination Debate Continued

ObjectiveBoard examinations in undergraduate medical education are imperative for competency assessment and a standard licensure process. While the cost of attendance and mean indebtedness of medical students have been quantified, the financial burden experienced by medical students from board preparation and examination has never been quantified.Materials and methodsA total of 290 fourth-year osteopathic medical students from 38 osteopathic medical schools completed an anonymous survey that asked them to select the resources they had purchased for board preparation. Along with demographic information, respondents were asked which board examinations they had taken during their medical school education. The price for each resource was located by going to the resource website and finding the “list price” of a brand-new copy/version of that resource. If a price was not found, a current Amazon.com “list price” was utilized. These prices best approximate the maximum a student would spend per resource. Response and statistical analysis such as analysis of variance, post hoc comparison (Scheffé and Bonferronis test), and chi-square tests were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics, version 25.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY).ResultsThis study found that osteopathic medical students spent, on average, $7,499 (s.d.=$2,506) for board preparation and examination. This cost when isolated is $3,370 for the cost of taking board examinations and $4,129 for the cost of board preparation. Respondents from the West were found to spend most at $9,432, while students from the Northeast spent the least, $7.090. Additionally, non-traditional medical students, those who matriculated after the age of 30 were found to spend more than individuals who began when they were under the age of 25 or between the ages of 25-30. The two most commonly used resources for both Level 1/Step 1 and Level 2/Step 2 examinations were COMBANK and UWorld. Conclusions/relevanceThis study is the first of its kind to quantify the mean cost of board preparation and examination in undergraduate medical education at $7,499. When considering the mean indebtedness of the osteopathic graduating class of 2017-2018, 2.94% of medical education debt can be attributed to the cost of board preparation and assessments. As competitiveness for graduate medical education increases, individuals will spend more money to ensure a competitive board exam performance, a key selection factor. Stakeholders in undergraduate medical education are encouraged to further understand the interplay between medical student debt and the cost of board examinations and preparation.

Alabama: THE NURSES' BOARD OF EXAMINATION AND REGISTRATION OP ALABAMA will hold examinations in Birmingham on May 21–22; Arizona: THE ARIZONA STATE BOARD OF NURSE EXAMINERS met at the State House in Phoenix, January 20, at which time the following officers were elected:

Caroline Campbell Chairman, USCC Board A team of ACCE members has been working diligently for nearly thirty months to put the clinical engineering certification program back in place after the AAMI Board recommended that the program be suspended in June 1999. The progress to date is described in the to the USCC on the Activities of the US Board of Examiners for Clinical Engineering that you will find on page four. ACCE and the Board of Examiners are working to design the new CCE program and all its components so that it will meet the accreditation standards of the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (part of the National Organization for Competency Assurance, www.noca.org). This group develops standards to measure organizations that provide certification programs. One of the outcomes of meeting these new standards will be that at least one non-clinical engineering individual will be on the Board of examiners. It is hoped that a nurse, physician, healthcare administrator or other healthcare professional will be able to join the Board. Another improvement in the process will be the addition of periodic updates in the exam to insure the question bank accurately tracks the clinical engineering 'body of knowledge'. Although it appears that the new US Board of Examiners will not be able to formally accept applications for certification until 2002, a description of the exam process, application fees, requirements for certification, application form, reference form, sample questions and reference materials used to verify the questions will be added to the ACCE website over the next month. To view these materials as they are posted, go to the website at www.accenet.org and click on the CE link. If you are interested in receiving an application form when they are ready for distribution please send your name and address in an e-mail to certification@accenet.org. ACCE hopes that the first exam will be able to be given in conjunction with the ACCE annual meeting June 3, 2002 during the AAMI Conference in Minneapolis, MN. Please look for further updates in the Certification Column that will appear in all future issues of the ACCE News. INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2 President’s Message 3 Expanded ACCE Secretariat Services 3 New Members 4 US Board of Examiners Report to USCC 6 On the Move and in the News 6 ACCE Teleconference Series 7 The View from the Penalty Box 8 Puff’s Mighty Roar 10 Workplace Profile 12 ACCE Board Highlights 13 Rebirth of in South Africa 14 Nepal ACEW 15 Brazil ACEW 16 Calendar of Events

Students are assessed by coursework and/or exams, all of which are marked by assessors (markers). Student and marker performances are then subject to end-of-session board of examiner handling and analysis. This occurs annually and is the basis for evaluating students but also the wider learning and teaching efficiency of an academic institution. However, this scrutiny may not be standardized and may differ between institutions and between different study programs and boards of examiners inside the same institution, as well as between sessions. This article aims to suggest a framework for this scrutiny, with provided examples, recommendations, and suggested practices to establish an approach that quantitatively and with statistical methods analyzes performance of both students and markers in a standardized, unified, and transparent manner and that may be employed across subjects and disciplines. The basis for this is accepted and rigorous suitable statistical methods that enable a comparison whereby performance of the student and the associated marking of the student's coursework and examinations in any given course are compared to the same student's performance in comparator courses, which thus establishes whether student or marking performance is comparable to the norm established by and for that student. This measures accuracy, reliability, and consistency of the marking process. The benefit of this is that it identifies strengths and weaknesses in assessment and examination practice, provides evidence to inform decision-making, tracks progress over time, and establishes institutional standards that thereby provide accountability. This establishes good practice in the process of assessment and examination.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Core to their education mission is that colleges and universities scrutinize assessment and examination via boards of examiners, but this scrutiny has no set standard or protocol. This article gives principles and practical recommendations, with examples, for how this scrutiny could or should be carried out, in a manner that establishes accountability and good practice that study programs and boards of examiners in education may utilize, to improve educational practice.

Trial or mock examinations for classes 10 and 12, conducted months before students appear for a high stake, externally administered and evaluated board examinations, came under scrutiny after an educational strategic documented recommended a review on its need and efficacy. Due to a lack of literature on the need and efficacy of trial examinations in Bhutanese educational context, a qualitative inquiry employing interviews with principals and focused group discussions with teachers was conducted to identify potential theories. Teacher accountability, assessment feedback, and prediction of students’ achievement in board examinations were used to justify the need and efficacy of trial examinations, while waste of instructional hours, teacher and student stress were the adverse consequences purported. The objectives of the research were to quantitatively test these assumptions and explore statistical relationships between trial examination and board examination scores. Primary data was collected from 261 teachers and 562 students. Trial and board examinations academic achievement results of 2432 class 10 and 557 class 12 students were collected. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that teachers perceive trial examinations as a necessary evil through which they learn more about students’ knowledge gaps to act upon, rather than being anxious about student achievement. Both students and teachers perceived that trial facilitates improved student achievement, when measured through examination marks. Trial examination marks demonstrate positive, weak to moderate correlation to board examination marks and the relationships are statistically significant. The perceptions that the planning and conduct of trial examinations are a waste of instructional time, lead to teacher and student stress were obtained to be myths. This research contributes to existing literature that low stakes testing programs facilitate improvement in student scores.

Board examination, in a students’ life is the big challenge to the high school students. Almost every student feels anxiety and stress before examination. Aim: This study aims to compare state trait anxiety and perceived stress among the High School Students having working and non working mothers before board examination . Methods: A comparative survey research was adopted on 50 high school students having working mothers and 50 high school students having non working mothers of Kolkata and Hooghly in West Bengal using simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using semi structured demographic proforma, Stress Trait Anxiety Inventory Form X -1 by Charles D.Spielberger (1968),Stress Trait Anxiety Inventory Form X-2 by Charles D.Spielberger(1968),Perceived Stress Scale by Cohen, S.,Kamarck,T. and Mermelstein,R. (1983). Result: The study findings revealed that mean score of state anxiety among the high school students having working mothers was 55.58 and the mean score among students having non-working mothers was 47.76. Mean trait anxiety score of students having working mother was 49.9 and the students having non-working mother was 43.88. Mean perceived stress score of students having working mother was 22.88 and the students having non-working mothers was 19.86. Findings also revealed that high school students having working mothers had statistically significant high state trait anxiety and perceived stress than the students having non working mothers at 0.01 level of significance. Conclusion: The current study concluded that students of working mothers suffered from more state trait anxiety and perceived stress than the students of non working mothers.

This study sought to explore the views of psychology graduates on the process of registration as a psychologist in Zimbabwe. Specific areas of interest to the researchers were the views of psychology graduates on the academic qualifications required for registration, the post graduate internship programme, continuing professional development and the board examinations. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was done by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews to twelve purposely selected psychology graduates. All participants had a master’s degree of which five were registered psychologists and the rest were not registered. Three major themes were generated from the analysis of the participants’ interviews and these were: academic qualifications for registration, post graduate internship, board examinations and continuing professional development. Generally, the results reveal lack of choices at masters’ degree programmes resulting in participants embarking on counselling and community psychology degrees. They also showed dislike on the continuing professional development points due to barriers such as localisation of workshops and lack of time to do research. The board of examination was viewed positively. The study recommends that the Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe needs to collaborate with universities, psychology interns and registered psychologists in the best way forward in registration and practice of psychologists.
 Key Words: Registration; Internship; Psychologist; Qualification; Board Examination

To highlight the lack of randomized controlled trial (RCT) evidence in support of accepted therapeutic interventions in the intensive care unit by assessing the ability of Intensive Care Board Examination candidates to cite relevant studies. As part of the Board Examination for Intensive Care Medicine in Belgium, candidates were asked to name accepted therapeutic interventions that have been shown to reduce mortality in RCTs. Survey of doctors. Candidates for the 1998 Board Examination for Intensive Care Medicine in Belgium. None Of the 46 candidates, 25 (54%) gave no response and 3 (7%) stated that no such study exists; 16 responses from 13 doctors were considered acceptable answers. Candidates for the Board Examination of Intensive Care in Belgium were unable to list many accepted interventions in critical care medicine that are supported by RCT evidence. The RCT may not be the most appropriate tool for assessing the value of an intervention in the intensive care environment.

Recent studies have identified biases directed against women in standardized tests. We tested for the existence of such biases in the American College of Radiology (ACR) In-Training Examination in Radiation Oncology and the American Board of Radiology (ABR) Written Radiation Oncology Board Examination. Our request to the ABR to permit us to study performance on their examinations, as a function of sex, was refused. We obtained scores, through the cooperation of six academic radiation oncology departments, for residents-in-training taking the in-service examination and candidates taking the written board examination for the first time. Test results for 1984 to 1995 were blinded as to name, but not sex or institution of training. For the in-service examination, scores are reported as percentiles normalized to the year of training. The effect of multiple scores for the same resident was assessed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Residents were nested within each sex/institution combination and crossed with training year and calendar year. The effects of three factors (sex, institution, and year the examination was taken) on the results of the biology, physics, and clinical sections were evaluated with an analysis of variance. The interactions of sex with institution and year were included to determine the scope of the sex effect. For the board examination, scores are reported as percentiles, as well as an overall pass/ fail outcome. An analyses of variance was performed similar to that used for the in-service examination. In addition, Fisher's exact test and logistic regression were used to analyze overall outcome (pass/fail). We obtained data for 79 residents (48 men and 31 women, 1.54:1) who took the in-service examinations 165 times. Sixty-two residents (41 men and 21 women, 1.95:1) had an initial sitting for the ABR written examination. On the in-service examination, for the biology, physics, and clinical subsections, calendar year, training year, and sex did not have a significant effect on examinees scores. Institution of training had a significant effect (P < .02) on the scores in biology and physics. The total in-service examination scores were not significantly influenced by calendar year, training year, or sex. Institution of training has a strong influence on overall score (P = .03) and the interaction of sex with training year is near significance level (P = .06). The power for our statistical tests ranged from 0.88 to 0.99. On the board examination, sex, institution of training, year the examination was taken, and interaction of sex with year or sex with institution of training did not have a significant effect on test scores. Pass rates were 90% for men versus 81% for women (P = .43). Sex did not significantly influence the results of the in-service examination or the written board examination. Institution of training is the strongest influence on the results of the in-service examination.

BackgroundNational Board of Anesthesiology (NBA) pass rate is an important and critical step in clinical residency programs.ObjectivesThis study was designed to assess the relationship between an integrative educational intervention (IEI) and the relative annual pass rate (RAPR). RAPR is defined as ratio of NBA pass rate of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU) to the NBA pass rate of all the anesthesiology residency programs across Iran.MethodsIn a descriptive-analytic retrospective study from 2012 to 2019, RAPR was calculated. IEI was implanted in the latter 4years period of this time interval includes: (1) individualized mentorship for residents by faculty members; (2) monthly in-training examination (ITE) in written; and (3) periodical mocked OSCE exam. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to assess correlation between integrative educational intervention and RAPR results. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThere was a statistically significant relationship between “integrative educational intervention program” and the RAPR results: Spearman’s correlation coefficient = 0.655 (P value = 0.039).ConclusionsThe IEI package of Anesthesiology Department, SBMU showed a significant relationship with improvements in successfulness for anesthesiology residents in the National Board Exam (RAPR trend). More prolonged studies could prevail further aspects of these interventions.

Among the provisions of the constitution of the American Institute of Accountants, it is stated that one of the objects of the Institute is "to develop and improve accountancy education." The endowment fund was established largely for the promotion of this object; and for years the Committee on Education has been functioning with great vigor in an attempt to analyze and formulate the trend of accounting instruction. In previous regional meetings and in sessions of the Institute, educators have been called upon freely to express their ideas as to the problem which they have. Each year the recommendations which have proceeded from discussions have become more and more specific. Yet is appears that nothing has been said as to the importance to the academic field of the semi-annual examinations set by the Institute's Board of Examiners. Members of the teaching profession have regarded these examinations, especially since their adoption by thirty or more state boards of examiners, as furnishing important criteria for student instruction. No doubt the Institute's Board of Examiners, with appropriate professional modesty, would disclaim any effort, direct or indirect, to invade or in any way to influence the profession of teaching. But a denial of intent cannot alter the use to which the examinations have been put.

Medical Journal of AustraliaVolume 1, Issue 20 p. 742-744 Original Article THE ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA Howard H. Eddey, Corresponding Author Howard H. Eddey n/a@dne.dne MelbourneCouncillor, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, 1967 to 1975; Chairman, Board of Examiners, 1968 to 1973. Address for reprints: Professor H. H. Eddey, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Spring Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000.Search for more papers by this author Howard H. Eddey, Corresponding Author Howard H. Eddey n/a@dne.dne MelbourneCouncillor, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, 1967 to 1975; Chairman, Board of Examiners, 1968 to 1973. Address for reprints: Professor H. H. Eddey, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Spring Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000.Search for more papers by this author First published: 01 May 1977 https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1977.tb131077.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume1, Issue20May 1977Pages 742-744 RelatedInformation

Background: For years, quantifiable examinations have been a core component of assessing medical student competence during the internal medicine clerkship. Purpose: To determine how internal medicine clerkship directors use and view examinations and how uses of examinations have changed. Methods: In 1999, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine conducted a confidential survey of its 123 institutional members. Results: Survey response rate was 89% (109/123). The National Board of Medical Examiners subject examination was used by 83%, alone (49%) or in combination with a faculty developed examination or a standardized patient examination (34%). Minimum passing scores were required for the subject exam by 80%, for faculty-developed examinations by 65%, and for the standardized patient exam by 63%. Examinations contribute approximately 25% toward a student's final grade. Students with acceptable clerkship performances but who fail an exam typically retest after self-study. Students who fail a retest receive unsatisfactory grades and require additional medicine experience. Of the clerkship directors who reported using the National Board of Medical Examiners subject examination, 45 (50%) provided comments on ways to improve the examination. Comments focused on examination content, reporting results, basing the exam on a published core curriculum, and general administrative issues. Over the past decade, use of the National Board of Medical Examiners subject examination has increased (66% to 83%), use of faculty-developed examinations has declined (46% to 27%), and the use of a clerkship standardized patient examination increased sharply (2% to 27%). Conclusions: Internal medicine clerkship directors commonly require students to pass standardized or locally developed exams and use test results to make academic decisions. The use of standardized patient examinations has increased significantly and likely reflects a broadening of competency assessment. Our results can serve as a basis for individual programmatic evaluation, for internal medicine and other clerkship directors.

The objective of this study was to assess the results of a structured remediation program for surgical residents scoring poorly on the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination®. Residents scoring below the threshold (<20th percentile) were placed in a remediation program consisting of textbook-based review and mandatory weekly quizzes overseen by the program director. The effects of the program were assessed over a five-year period (2014-2018). Of 168 tests taken, 23 (13.7%) instances of scoring below the threshold occurred (average percentile 11, range 1-19). Postremediation scores in the subsequent year improved with a median (IQR) percentile increase of 29 [23.5, 46] (P < 0.001). Two residents scored below the threshold twice; all others continued to score above the threshold. Participation in a structured remediation program results in dramatic improvement in American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination® performance, and a single occurrence of poor performance does not necessarily lead to a permanent handicap in academic performance.

Investigating Rare Events and a Discussion on Waiting Room Chest Pain Evaluations