However, they have value if used to assess a content section on multiple exams. Interpret with Cautionĭata on subscales should be interpreted with caution because they have a small number of questions with varying levels of difficulty. We recommend that you look at your cohort data, examine your cohort trends year over year, and compare them to the national exam data and national trends year over year. Note that scores can only be compared within each specialty exam, not between specialty exams. Look at Trendsįor each exam, scale scores (and raw scores converted to the scale) can be compared between exam forms and across cohort years. PAEA offers the following recommendations for approaching and interpreting End of Rotation exam score reports. End of Rotation exams should be part of a broader supervised clinical practice experience (SCPE) evaluation the weight and passing score of these exams may differ based on other components that your program employs. These need to be established by each program at the local level through statistical standard setting or other processes in accordance with program policies, learning objectives, and requirements. PAEA does not set standards for End of Rotation exams, nor do we advise programs where to set their performance bars for passing scores. For more information on this change, see the following resources: Our psychometric team has employed a statistical process called “equating,” which compensates for small variations in difficulty between sets of test questions by placing all scores on a single scale. To make consistent and fair decisions based on assessment results, the scores reported from different forms need to be comparable. Forms are built to be equivalent in difficulty, but one exam form may be slightly more or less difficult than another, leading to potentially inappropriate comparisons. Each form is designed to measure the same content however, each form contains different sets of test questions. Extra forms offer programs the ability to retest students after remediation. There are at least two forms available for each of PAEA’s seven End of Rotation exams. Starting in 2018, PAEA has moved to reporting scores using a scale rather than the number of correct responses to allow different test forms within the same year and across years to be comparable. We urge PA faculty to interpret and use the national comparison data for End of Rotation exams carefully and thoughtfully, as a variety of factors can influence individual and cohort-level outcomes.

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