Comparison between key feature exam and multiple choice questions in internal medicine department of Shiraz University of medical sciences

Introduction: Clinical reasoning skills play a major role in the ability of doctors to make diagnosis and reach treatment decisions. This study is a report of use an innovative assessment tool: key feature exam, in problem solving domain. The main purpose of this study was to compare key feature results with routine multiple choice questions in internal medicine department. Methods: Final year internal medicine students (n=100) of Shiraz medical school participated in this study. They implemented in multiple choice questions exam then participated in key feature exam. Reliability, item&rsquo;s difficulty level and item&rsquo;s total correlation as discriminative index, about key feature exam have been considered. Results: The maximum, minimum and mean scores of the students in key feature exam were 23.7, 41.2 and 30.91, respectively. The reliability of key feature exam was 0.68 (chronbach&rsquo;s alpha). The item&rsquo;s difficulty level scores were between 0.3-0.8 in all key feature questions and item&rsquo;s total correlation was 0.16-0.54. Correlation between key feature exam and multiple choice questions exam was 0.25 (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that key feature examination may be a better method for evaluating clinical reasoning skills of medical students