Standard setting for medical exams

‘Standard’ is defined as “any measure by which one judges a things as authentic, good, or adequate, or the degree to which it is authentic, good, or adequate. Standard applies to any authoritative rule, … or measure used to determine the … value, quality, level, or degree of a thing”.

In examinations we are ‘measuring’ the candidates. ‘Standard setting’ is the process of deciding the pass mark or a cut-point for an examination. It usually involves a group of experts. The judgement of the experts in the group is used to set the standard.

Why standard setting?

Why is standard setting necessary? The reasons relate to the level of difficulty of the exam. If an unduly difficult exam is set, some students who might otherwise have passed will fail, when the pass mark is always fixed at 50%. If an unduly easy exam is set, some students will pass who might otherwise have failed. Standard setting allows for variations in difficulty of an exam to be taken into consideration in deciding the pass mark.

Standard setting ensures that the student who passes an exam has mastered the core knowledge and competencies that are assessed by the exam. The aim of standard setting is to separate the ‘competent’ candidates form the ‘non-competent’.