Questions for ECVAA
Questions must be related to one of the following Topics: Curriculum
a) Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
Multiple Choice Questions have the advantage of a high reliability per hour of testing, mainly because they can be answered quickly and a wide spectrum of knowledge can be tested in a short space of time. There is a need for questions that cover not only veterinary anaesthesia, but also biophysics, statistics, and general medicine and surgery when relevant to anaesthetic management, exotic and laboratory animals, history, etc. We are not looking for the obscure or unusual, but for an answer which an ECVAA Diplomate may be reasonably expected to know.
The format of ECVAA MCQs is 'single best answer' i.e. a 'stem' or the actual question, followed by FIVE answers, only ONE of which is correct (the remaining four are termed DISTRACTORS).
Useful tips for writing good MCQs:
- Avoid negatively stated stems that require the examinee to choose an incorrect rather than a correct response, e.g. avoid stems containing terms such as “Which one of these is NOT....”
- Avoid using the stem ‘which of the following statements is correct’ (academically this is a different test to a ‘single best answer’ MCQ as each statement becomes a true/false option)
- Avoid using a ‘part sentence’ in the stem, e.g. “when selecting an ETT you should…”
- Make the stem as clear and unambiguous as possible.
- Avoid using the terms “always” and “never”.
- All responses should be grammatically consistent with the stem.
- All distractors must be plausible and should be of similar length.
- Responses should not overlap in meaning, such that more than one correct answer may be selected.
- Do not use "all of the above", "none of the above", "two of the above" e.g. "a and d can be used".
- Do not use questions that might ask "What would you do?"
- Questions should be written to assess knowledge of meaningful facts and concepts, and not trivia.
- Stems should ask questions concisely, not be over-long, and be grammatically correct. Do not include unessential information in the stem.
- Avoid providing clues within the stem that will facilitate answering the question.
- Avoid creating situations where a candidate can answer a question by recognizing the correct option, but could not answer in the absence of options. This effect is called ‘cueing’ and is a particular problem when assessing diagnostic reasoning.
- Avoid using answers that are mutually exclusive. For example, if answer a and b are opposites, it will often narrow the answer down to one of those answers.
- Avoid questions that are based on a single paper on material that is still subject to much debate or controversy; review papers or state-of-the-art papers are appropriate.
Please submit these using the template provided (3.2). In the Comments section of the template, please include up to date, complete references and an explanation as to why the distractors are incorrect. References may be current, well-recognized textbooks, but ideally a specific citation to an article is required, i.e. authors, title, journal, year.
For further tips on writing good MCQ questions, a useful guide can be found on the National Board of Medical Examiners website (http://www.nbme.org/publications/item-writing-manual.html).
b) Essay Questions
These questions cover mainly basic science, equipment, monitoring, pharmacology and physiology related to clinical anaesthesia. Each answer is expected to be around 3 sides of A4 paper with normal handwriting (1200-1800 words).
In addition to an "essay question" that suits a 1200 - 1800 word response, we also require that you provide in telegram style or with extended key-wording the essence of a correct answer (model answer) with relevant reference(s).
c) Short Answer Questions
The short questions should be answered in the form of "Essay-notes". Answers should be concise, with facts rather than discussion (unless requested). As a guide to length of answer, they are expected to be half a page of A4 with normal handwriting - with a maximum of one such page (we estimate this as between 200-300 words). Diagrams may be in addition to this.
As with the essay questions, please provide in telegram style or with extended key-wording the essence of a correct answer (model answer) possibly with relevant reference(s).
Guide for questions
