title: Anatomy of a clerkship test.
abstract: Written examinations are frequently used to assess medical student performance. Within emergency medicine (EM), a National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject examination for EM clerkships does not exist. As a result, clerkship directors frequently generate examinations within their institution. This article reviews the literature behind the use of standardized examinations in evaluating medical student performance, describes methods for generating well-written test questions, reviews the statistical concepts of reliability and validity that are necessary to evaluate an examination, and proposes future directions for testing EM students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. ESenecal@Partners.org
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Senecal
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Askew
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gorney
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Beeson
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Manthey
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000592:standards*; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States