title: Difficulty and discrimination indices of multiple-choice examination items in a college of pharmacy therapeutics and pathophysiology course sequence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to identify differences in difficulty and discrimination among multiple-choice examination items with regard to format and content in pharmacy therapeutics and pathophysiology (TP) courses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Items from a TP course sequence were categorized by format and content by a faculty committee using the Delphi technique. Difficulty was not normally distributed; therefore, a logit transformation was employed. Difficulty and discrimination were analysed using one-way analysis of variance, with post hoc Bonferroni correction for pairs, to detect differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 516 items were included, with approximately 233 students answering each item. Case-based items were statistically more difficult than Standard (P=0.0007) or Statement items (P=0.001) and more discriminatory than Standard items (P=0.015). Dosing items were more difficult (P=0.013) and discriminating (P=0.02) than therapeutics items.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Case-based items appear to have been more difficult than other items and may provide greater discrimination than Standard items.
authors: College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA.
authors: Joshua
authors: J
authors: Caballero
authors: William R
authors: WR
authors: Wolowich
authors: Sandra
authors: S
authors: Benavides
authors: Jehan
authors: J
authors: Marino
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical
keywords: assessment; items; pharmacy; questions; therapeutics