Education Initiatives for Improved United States Medical Licensing Examination Performance

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko Yoshida ◽  
Kenneth L. Sims
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Examination Performance ◽  
Medical Licensing ◽  
Licensing Examination ◽  
Education Initiatives

scholarly journals The Route to the USMLE: The Shibboleth of Modern Medical Licensure

2014 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Howard Wainer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
British Raj ◽  
Medical Licensing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Licensing Examination ◽  
Multiple Choice Exam ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT The formal licensing of physicians in the United States began with the 1889 Supreme Court Decision Dent v. West Virginia. From that time forward, tests, in one form or another, have played a crucial role in medical licensing. In this essay we trace the history of testing from its beginnings in Xia dynasty China, 4000 years ago, though its adoption for the Indian civil service system by the British Raj, and finally ending with the 1992 introduction of the modern United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The focus here is on the most important development in testing since the Jesuits introduced written exams to the West in 1599 — the substitution of a large number of objectively scored multiple choice exam questions for a relatively small number of essays or interview questions. This approach provided increased reliability and validity of score, broadened the number of topics that could be addressed, diminished the cost of the exam, allowed results to be calculated almost instantly, and, through the use of computerized test administration, provided the opportunity for tests to be individually tailored for each examinee while maintaining comparability of scores across all examinees.

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