PACE 8 Report

PACE 8 is the final Academy examination in the PACE series. The self-assessment program for pediatricians began in 1970 with SEEP followed by PACE in 1976-1979 and is currently continued as part of the PREP program. This report summarizes the data of the PACE 8 See Table in the PDF File See Images in the PDF File multiple-choice examination. Of the 3,635 subscribers, 1,155 returned answer sheets to the Academy for CME credit. All participants had the option of completing the assessments open book (using references), closed book, or both. All of the examinations (577) designated as "closed book" were scored to compile these data. The descriptive statistics generated provide an opportunity for PACE 8 participants to compare their performance with that of the sample. Table 1 gives the statistical summary for the total examination. Table 2 lists the mean percent scores for the topic areas. Table 3 gives information on the difficulty of each question in terms of the percent of participants answering the item correctly. A histogram of PACE 8 total scores is presented in the Figure. The data have been presented in a similar format to the PACE 7 Report ( Pediatrics 63:922, 1979) for comparison. PACE 8, like the previous examinations, was designed as an educational activity, only sampling knowledge base, and was not given in the usual controlled conditions. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Floy Helwig, MD, FAAP, PACE Science Editor, and the Academy gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Melton E. Golmon, PhD, Director of Medical Education, Northwestern University Medical School, in the preparation of the statistics.