Implementation of Computer Based Problem Solving Examinations for Testing Pre-Clinical Students in Immunology.

Abstract Our purpose was to determine the feasibility of creating and administering problem solving computer based examinations for evaluating second year medical students in immunology, and to determine how students would perform on these tests relative to their performance on concurrently administered objective and essay examinations. Our results indicate that questions of uniform difficulty can be created in a problem solving environment and that correct solution of the problem correlates with the early selection of the most relevant data. Scores on the essay and objective examinations were most highly correlated with poor correlations between the computer and objective and the computer and essay examinations. Although some students found this examination format stressful, most students felt that such problem solving formats should be used in future testing.