Evaluation of 30 Structural Validity and Content Quality Indices of Theoretical Dental Exams

Introduction: Exam is an inseparable part of education and the main tool to evaluate the results of educational process. If based on scientific rules, it can show the level of achievement to educational goals. This study was accomplished to evaluate the quality of theoretical exams in different departments of Dental School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the quality of all written final exams of the first theoretical courses of 10 departments were evaluated in terms of 30 indices regarding structural validity, content relevance and content coverage, differential index, difficulty index, value of distracters, and taxonomy. Millman's check list, content analysis table and standard formula were used to collect the data. SPSS software version15 was used to analyze the data. Results: Out of 544 questions, 67.5 were multiple choice questions, 13 were descriptive and 19.5 were true–false queries. Content relevance and content coverage was considered in 85.4 and 84.5 of questions respectively. Standard structural rules were observed in 96.4 of questions and 72.2 of exams. Difficulty index and value of distracters were estimated to be 67.8, 22.3, and 24.5 respectively. 84.6 of questions were of taxonomy I, and the remaining 15.4 were of taxonomy II. Conclusion: Content relevance, content coverage, consideration of structural rules, and difficulty index were acceptable in theoretical written exams, whereas taxonomy, differential index and value of distracters needed to be reconsidered.