Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Testing
The USMLE program has established rules to govern administration of the examinations to ensure that no examinee or group of examinees receives unfair advantage on the examination, inadvertently or otherwise. The rules include standard test administration conditions consistent with the principles on which the examinations are developed and scored. For example, examinations are designed to sample knowledge across specified content domains, and unauthorized access to examination content prior to testing violates that principle.
If there is a reason to believe that the integrity of the examination process is jeopardized, the USMLE parent organizations may invalidate all or any part of an examination. If information indicates that continued testing would jeopardize the security of examination materials or the integrity of scores, the USMLE parent organizations reserve the right to suspend or cancel test administration.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
CRU Updates – November 2011
New question formats in February 2012 Step 3 Examination
One of the recommendations emerging from the Comprehensive Review of USMLE (CRU) process is that USMLE develop assessments focusing on the examinee’s ability to access relevant information, evaluate its quality, and apply it to solving clinical problems. Among the formats under development to help meet this recommendation are multiple choice questions that assess an examinee’s ability to appropriately interpret information presented both in the form of a research abstract and a pharmaceutical advertisement.
A small number of items with an associated drug ad or abstract will be introduced into the USMLE Step 3 Examination beginning in February 2012.
Pharmaceutical Advertisement (Drug Ad) Format
The drug ad item format includes a rich stimulus presented in a manner commonly encountered by a physician, eg, as a printed advertisement in a medical journal. Examinees must interpret the presented material in order to answer questions on various topics, including
- Decisions about care of an individual patient
- Biostatistics/epidemiology
- Pharmacology/therapeutics
- Development and approval of drugs and dietary supplements
- Medical ethics
The abstract item format includes a summary of an experiment or clinical investigation presented in a manner commonly encountered by a physician, eg, as an abstract that accompanies a research report in a medical journal. Examinees must interpret the abstract in order to answer questions on various topics, including
- Decisions about care of an individual patient
- Biostatistics/epidemiology
- Pharmacology/therapeutics
- Use of diagnostic studies
Monday, January 14, 2013
What is the USMLE?
USMLE is a standardized examination used to evaluate
applicants’ competence for purposes of medical licensure in the United States
and its territories. The USMLE is designed to assess a physician’s ability to apply
knowledge, concepts, and principles, and to demonstrate fundamental
patient-centered skills, that constitute the basis of safe and effective
patient care. USMLE is accepted by virtually all licensing boards in the US as
evidence of competence to practice medicine in the US. State medical boards
rely upon successful completion of the three USMLE
component exams, or “Steps,” as an important element in the process for
licensing physicians. Because of the test’s importance to the public’s safety
and to examinees, maintaining its fairness and integrity is a priority for the
NBME.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Test Accommodations – Introduction
The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)
Program provides reasonable and appropriate accommodations in accordance with
the Americans with Disabilities Act for individuals with documented
disabilities who demonstrate a need for accommodation. Examinees are informed
of the availability of test accommodations in the USMLE Bulletin
of Information: Applying and Scheduling and in the Application Instructions.
The following information is provided for examinees,
evaluators, medical school student affairs staff, faculty and others involved
in the process of documenting a request for test accommodations. Applicants
requesting test accommodations should share these guidelines with their
evaluator, therapist, treating physician, etc., so that appropriate
documentation can be assembled to support the request for test accommodations.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and
accompanying regulations define a person with a disability as someone with a
physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life
activities such as walking, seeing, hearing, or learning. The purpose of
documentation is to validate that the individual is covered under the Americans
with Disabilities Act as a disabled individual.
The purpose of accommodations is to provide equal access to
the USMLE
testing program. Accommodations “match up” with the identified functional
limitation so that the area of impairment is alleviated by an auxiliary aid or
adjustment to the testing procedure. Functional
limitation refers to the behavioral manifestations of the disability that
impede the individual’s ability to function, i.e., what someone cannot do on a
regular and continuing basis as a result of the disability. For
example, a functional limitation might be impaired vision so that the
individual is unable to view the examination in the standard font size. An
appropriate accommodation might be text enlargement. It is essential that the
documentation provide a clear explanation of the functional impairment and a
rationale for the requested accommodation.
While presumably the use of accommodations in the test
activity will enable the individual to better demonstrate his/her knowledge
mastery, accommodations are not a guarantee of improved performance, test
completion or a passing score.
Quick
Links:
2. Guidelines
3. Forms
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