A review of the role, status and application of psychometric measurement in medical education tests

Measurement has a special place in education. The main challenge of today psychometric measurements is to obtain numerical values for the competencies that can be used as a basis for decision making. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to review the role, position, and application of psychometric measurement in medical education exams.

This review study was conducted through the keywords Measurement, Assessment, Psychometric, Theoretical support, Theoretical Analysis, Theoretical foundation, Psychometric Analysis, Test, Examination, Medical Education, Validity and Reliability at websites such as Google Scholar, PubMed, SID, ERIC and Science direct and has been done on 32 articles without از time limit.

From a total of 92 reviewed articles, the documentation of 32 relevant and valid articles was extracted with 31 English articles and a Persian article. Important findings of this study underline the validity, reliability, educational effect, acceptability, cost and applicability as well as sensitivity of the test, which are important features in the psychometrics of medical science tests. These findings highlight the importance of psychometric properties in evaluations in medical education.

The results show that due to the importance of psychometric properties in medical education exams, especially in high-sensitivity exams, familiarity with these features and standardization methods of exams is a necessity for medical educators. The use of techniques to increase the validity and reliability of exams and considering the basic principles in the design, preparation, implementation and analysis of exams is recommended to policy makers and examiners, educators and those in charge of higher education.