JNMA I VOL 56 I NO. 3 I ISSUE 205 I JAN-MAR 2017 112 Construction of Multiple Choice Questions Before and After An Educational Intervention Karma Tenzin, 1 Thinley Dorji, 1,2 Tashi Tenzin 1,2 1 Faculty of Postgraduate Medicine, Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan, 2 Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital, Thimphu, Bhutan. ABSTRACT Introduction: Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan, established in 2014, has ushered in a new era in medical education in Bhutan. Multiple Choice Questions are a common means of written assessment in medical education. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study conducted at the Faculty of Postgraduate Medicine, KGUMSB, Thimphu in December 2016. A total of 8 MCQs were prepared by four teaching faculties from different felds who had no prior training on construction of MCQs. It was delivered to a group of 16 randomly selected intern doctors. A 2 hours long workshop on construction of MCQs was conducted. After the workshop, the same MCQs were modifed according to standard guidelines on developing MCQs and were tested in the same group of intern doctors. An analysis on the performance, diffculty factor, discrimination index and distractor analysis was done on the two sets of MCQs using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 20.0. Results: For the pre- and post-workshop questions respectively, the pass percentage was 69.8% (11) and 81.3% (13), diffculty factor was 0.51 and 0.53, discrimination index was 0.59 and 0.47, distractor effectiveness was 83.3% and 74.9%. Conclusions: The workshop on MCQ development apparently seemed highly valuable and effective in changing the learning and performances of medical educators in the development of MCQs. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: diffculty factor; discrimination index; faculty development; medical education. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________ Correspondence: Dr. Karma Tenzin, Faculty of Postgraduate Medicine, JDWNRH Campus, Thimphu, Bhutan. Email: karmatenzin9@ gmail.com, Phone: +97517969450. INTRODUCTION Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are a common means of written assessment in medical education. They are suitable to assess knowledge and comprehension in basic and clinical sciences. 1,2 MCQs are designed with a question and a set of responses. The correct answer is called the “key” and the others “distractors”. 3 Distractors attract the students who do not know the correct answer. 4 The university or a certifying board may use MCQs as a summative assessment to certify the health professional. 2,6 Many faculty members at the Faculty of Postgraduate Medicine, Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) lacked experiences in teaching and assessment techniques including development of ORIGINAL ARTICLE J Nepal Med Assoc 2017;56(205):112-6 CC S BY NC OPEN ACCESS