New Question Type on Step II CK per NBME

[DrBowtie]

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New question formats in Step 2 CK Examination starting August 2011
Items with an associated drug ad or abstract will be introduced into the USMLE Step 2 CK Examination beginning in August 2011. Each drug ad or abstract will appear as a 2- or 3-item set*; examinees will see no more than 5 of these item sets in their examination. A description of the purpose of these new item formats is provided in the Comprehensive Review of USMLE update.
Posted June 15, 2011 [-] Click HERE to close announcement

Updated Step 2 CK Orientation and Practice Materials are available here. Instructions for practicing with these new item formats are provided in the tutorial.

Introduction of these formats has resulted in the following minor changes to the Step 2 CK Examination structure:

• Because item sets with an associated drug ad or abstract may require more time to answer than other multiple-choice items, exam blocks that include an abstract or drug ad item set will contain fewer items. A screen will appear at the beginning of a block alerting examinees if a block includes a drug ad or abstract item set so that examinees can monitor their time accordingly.
• The tutorial provided in Prometric centers on exam day at the beginning of the Step 2 CK has fewer screens and less detailed information than the tutorial available as part of the Step 2 CK Orientation and Practice materials on the USMLE website. In the exam-day tutorial, the screens describing some of the navigation features of the test delivery software have been consolidated into fewer screens. In advance of testing, examinees should review the more complete tutorial available in the Step 2 CK Orientation and Practice Materials that are available at the USMLE website.

* An “item set” is a drug ad or abstract and the two or three questions that accompany it.

Surely for those of us taking it soon these will be experimental right?

Also of note that:
Starting on or around August 3, a transition period will begin in which the number of items in current forms of the Step 2 CK examination will change from 352 items to 346 items. Although the transition will occur quickly at many test centers, there may be some locations where the changes take slightly longer to complete. The overall transition period will likely last approximately 6 weeks.

 

[LouisianaDoctor]

What do they mean by "drug ad or abstract"? Like will they say "this pill is great for fixing erectile dysfunction, oh but you better not take it with nitrates!!! "Boy I had no erections and my wife almost left me, but now I'm king of the bedroom again!"" ?

 

[DrBowtie]

I'm guessing it will be biostats related.

 

[studyingforever]

It doesn't sound like these will be experimental questions though - it seems like they will be scored? Any thoughts?

 

[DrBowtie]

It doesn't sound like these will be experimental questions though - it seems like they will be scored? Any thoughts?

Unless they've been tested before in live administrations I'd imagine they're experimental for now. They need discrimination data on the items to insert them into real exams to make them fair and equitable across forms.

Maybe they have had them before and no one has commented about it previously.

 

[greg1184]

I encountered them in the free 150 sample questions from the NBME. Looks like they are trying to incorporate more of EBM and more "passage/interpretative" oriented questions on the exam.