Implementing standard setting into a postgraduate family medicine examination - process & issues.

Abstract

Standard setting is a process to determine the pass mark for an examination. In high stakes examination, it is important to ensure that those who pass are competent enough to practice in their discipline. Traditional fixed pass marks do not take into account the level of difficulty in an examination. This paper aims to describe the process and issues in implementing standard setting using the midified Angoff method, in a postgraduate Family Medicine examination i.e. the Conjoint MAFP/FRACGP Part 1 examination.