EBMA – European Knowledge Test

Dear,

Below you will find your feedback on your performance in the European Knowledge Test (EKT) that you took recently. But first I would like to thank you for helping us as we develop this test, and for taking part on the first occasion we have administered it. While the EKT is in the early stages of development and should not be relied on as more than an indication of aspects of your knowledge base, preliminary analysis tells us that the personal feedback we have prepared for you should be helpful as you plan your studies.

The standard for the EKT has been set according to well established methods, at the level to be expected from a medical student who has just graduated and is ready to begin the next stage of training as a doctor. If you are not yet at that stage, you will not necessarily have had the full range of clinical experience needed to answer some of the questions and you should not be disappointed if you found some of those questions very difficult.

EBMA will not share this result with any other organisation, although your school may have asked you to discuss its contents in order to guide our development work further.

We are very pleased that so many students gave us feedback about the test. The information will help us as we work to improve our assessments. If you have colleagues/friends who would like to volunteer in the next few months please do speak to your local organiser and we will arrange for them to do so. And later we will be developing other assessments, especially for actual practice, all of which will be designed to provide relevant, detailed feedback to help you focus your learning. For now, we are especially keen to hear how you like the feedback you will find in the next section of this letter.

If you want to know more about EBMA please talk to the organisers within your own medical school. In the future, EBMA will be anxious to get to know medical students and young doctors and to involve them in our work to develop fair and relevant assessments for European medicine.

Prof Dame Lesley Southgate DBE DSc(Hon) FRCP FRCGP MClin Sci

President EBMA

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Outcome

Total score

This graph shows your total score and the standard against the background distribution of your institution and of all institutions combined. Percentage score, standardized score and error are provided numerically next to the graphs. Move your mouse pointer over the graphs to view details.

Scores per Cluster

This graph shows your detailed scores and the standard per cluster against the background distribution of all institutions combined:

Scores per Category

This graph shows your detailed scores and the standard per category against the background distribution of all institutions combined:

Scores per Discipline

This graph shows your detailed scores and the standard per category against the background distribution of all institutions combined:

Scores per Task

This graph shows your detailed scores and the standard per task against the background distribution of all institutions combined:

Explanation

Your performance in EKT is presented in a series of interactive graphs in order to make your score report more informative. The graphs show your results in terms of percentage of correct questions in the yellow dots. Roll over the mouse over the yellow dot and your percentage score will appear. You will also find a standardized score. Standardization has been used by many assessment programs not only to ensure comparability of scores throughout time but also to produce more accurate estimates of your knowledge levels. The standardized score has the following metrics: a score of 500 is equal to the mean standardized score. Each standard deviation is equal to 100. This means that if you have a standardized score of 600, you are one standard deviation above the mean.

Your standardized score is followed by a plus-minus sign (±) and another number. This number is the estimated standard error of measurement. The standard error of measurement is a concept used to make room for the indirect nature of the measurement of tests. Consider other tests elaborated just like EKT, with the same content, the same length, and the same level of difficulty. Hypothetically, if you could do an infinite number of tests like EKT at the same time, roughly in 67% percent of the time your results would lie within the range of the standard error of measurement. You will notice that some measurement errors are bigger than others. This occurs in subscores with a low number of items.

In the background rectangles, you compare your results with the results of other test takers of the 1st 2014 EKT pilot. The left corner of the rectangle represents the score of the student in the 5th percentile. Roll over the mouse over the rectangle to find the grades of the students in the 15th, 50th (median), 70th and 95th percentiles.

The pass/fail result depends solely on the performance on the full test. Nevertheless, for study-enhancement purposes, the cutscores for each subscore are calculated as well. Roll over the mouse over the black lines behind the rectangles to find the values of cutscores.