F-type testlets and the effects of feedback and case-specificity.

Background: A novel type of item sets, "f-type" testlets, was recently introduced on the United States Medical Licensing Examination. These testlets contain two or more questions associated with a common clinical scenario. In some cases, as the scenario unfolds, examinees are indirectly provided with feedback about their response to a testlet question.

Assessing the impact of modifications to the documentation component's scoring rubric and rater training on USMLE integrated clinical encounter scores.

Background: Documentation is a subcomponent of the Step 2 Clinical Skills Examination Integrated Clinical Encounter (ICE) component wherein licensed physicians rate examinees on their ability to communicate the findings of the patient encounter, diagnostic impression, and initial patient work-up. The main purpose of this research was to examine the impact of modifications to the scoring rubric and rater training protocol on the psychometric characteristics of the documentation scores.

Method: Following the modifications, the variance structure of the ICE components was modeled using multivariate generalizability theory.