title: Pharmacy students' test-taking motivation-effort on a low-stakes standardized test.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To measure third-year pharmacy students' level of motivation while completing the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) administered as a low-stakes test to better understand use of the PCOA as a measure of student content knowledge.
  
  
  METHODS
  Student motivation was manipulated through an incentive (ie, personal letter from the dean) and a process of statistical motivation filtering. Data were analyzed to determine any differences between the experimental and control groups in PCOA test performance, motivation to perform well, and test performance after filtering for low motivation-effort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Incentivizing students diminished the need for filtering PCOA scores for low effort. Where filtering was used, performance scores improved, providing a more realistic measure of aggregate student performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To ensure that PCOA scores are an accurate reflection of student knowledge, incentivizing and/or filtering for low motivation-effort among pharmacy students should be considered fundamental best practice when the PCOA is administered as a low-stakes test.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy and Nursing, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766, USA. rhonda.waskiewicz@wilkes.edu
authors.forename: Rhonda A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Waskiewicz
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*