A New Method for Setting Standard in Medical Education, Applying Previous Year Cumulative GPA
This study tested a new method of standard setting which does not need judges’ decision. Objectives: (1) to compare the minimum-passing-level ( MPL) of the new standard setting approach with that of a traditional method (Angoff’s Method); and (2) to find the best borderline group by analyzing five ranges of the students’ previous year’s Cumulative Grade Point Average (cGPA). Method: A range of previous year GPA around 2 was used to probe borderline group, the mean of which was applied as cut-off to decide pass and fail. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were applied to investigate the agreement between the pass/fail cut-scores of the new approach and Angoff’s Method. Result: The pass/fail cut-score of new method highly agreed MPL of of Angoff’s Method: with AUC ranging from 0.91 to 1.0 in all analyses. Conclusion: This new approach would be an alternative to Angoff’s Method when subject-matter experts are not available or in order to avoid the making of subjective decisions by these experts. Key word: MPL, pass and fail, medical education, measurement, standard setting