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Table 1 Physician performance and item characteristics for 3- and 4-option MCI ITEs

From: A comparison of 3- and 4-option multiple-choice items for medical subspecialty in-training examinations

 

Percent-correct Score, Mean ± SD

Response time (seconds per item), Mean \(\pm\) SD

Response speed (seconds per word), Mean \(\pm\) SD

Item difficulty, Mean \(\pm\) SD

Item discrimination, Mean \(\pm\) SD

ITE-CCM

 4-option

65.7 \(\pm\) 6.9

58.9 \(\pm\) 22.8

0.98 \(\pm\) 0.53

0.66 \(\pm\) 0.21

0.13 \(\pm\) 0.09

 3-option

67.7 \(\pm\) 6.7

55.5 \(\pm\) 20.8

0.97 \(\pm\) 0.51

0.68 \(\pm\) 0.20

0.12 \(\pm\) 0.10

 Mean difference

2.1*

-3.4***

-0.01

0.02***

-0.01

ITE-PA

 4-option

71.8 \(\pm\) 5.0

47.5 \(\pm\) 19.0

1.19 \(\pm\) 0.44

0.72 \(\pm\) 0.25

0.08 \(\pm\) 0.11

 3-option

71.7 \(\pm\) 5.4

46.2 \(\pm\) 18.4

1.25 \(\pm\) 0.45

0.72 \(\pm\) 0.24

0.09 \(\pm\) 0.11

 Mean difference

-0.1

-1.3**

0.06 ***

0

0.02

  1. For ITE-CCM, np2019 = 152 in 4-option and np2020 = 123 in 3-option format; for ITE-PA, np2019 = 113 in 4-option and np2020 = 132 in 3-option format
  2. * indicates 0.01 \(<\) p ≤ 0.05; ** indicates 0.001 \(<\) p ≤ 0.01; *** indicates p ≤ 0.001