Abstract

PEREZ MARQUES, Luis Ulpiano et al. Validation of the quality of questions in a final examination of the subject Human Morphophysiology . MEDISAN [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.3, pp. 484-490. ISSN 1029-3019.

Introduction: the difficulty index and the discrimination power are easy indicators to calculate and useful for the analysis of the correspondence between the expected and obtained results of an evaluative instrument. Objective: to evaluate the quality of questions of the regular final examination of Human Mophophysiology V. Methods: the 265 theoretical examinations carried out by the second year students in the Medical Faculty No. 2 of the Medical University in Santiago de Cuba, during the course 2011-2012 were included in this investigation, to which the difficulty index and the discriminating power were calculated in each of the 7 applied questions. Results: the questions with alternative answer which evaluated the contents on blood and heart, showed a difficulty index below 0.1 and a discriminating power lower than 0.2, making necessary their reformulation in future evaluative instruments. The highest values for both indicators were 0.34 and 0.86, respectively, and they corresponded to a question of multiple selections on blood and lymphatic vessels, followed in order by the questions of open answer. Conclusions: the relevancy of most of the questions was demonstrated, and the capacity of 5 of them to distinguish students of high and low performances was emphasized.

Keywords : Morphophysiology V; evaluation of learning; difficulty index; discrimination power; validation of quality; university of medical sciences.