Standard Setting for Assessment of Basic Medical Science Modules

Standard setting in examination is the procedure to determine the passing score. Evidence from the literature showed that the practice of taking a 50% mark as the cut off point differentiating passes and failures is not defensible. The objective of this paper is to highlight the standard setting methodology in determining the pass or fail scores in the assessment of basic medical science module of undergraduate medical programme at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The results showed that the cut score values varied according to the method of assessment. The multiple choice question (MCQ) cut scores generated from the standard setting exercise were consistently lower than 50% score in all modules whilst the modified essay question (MEQ) cut score were generally higher than 50%. Generally, the cut scores generated by standard setting were reasonable; however, there were also cut scores generated that were either too low or too high. We conclude that it is feasible to conduct the standard setting procedures though it is rather tedious and time consuming. However, it requires training and more practice to obtain reliable and realistic results.