Abstract Objectives: MCQs is the most commonly used method for assessing the performance of medical students. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of MCQs for creating viable question bank for future use, to identify the low achievers and their learning difficulties, faculty development and also for its use in high stake examination. Methodology: 150 students of First year MBBS course attended 20 MCQs in the subject of Anatomy Goa Medical College Bambolim Goa. The MCQs were best single response type with four options, each item comprising of one mark to be answered in fifty seconds for 20 marks. There was no negative marking and 50% score was considered as pass. Prevalidation of MCQs was done by senior faculties. Post validation of the MCQs was done by Item analysis for Difficulty Index, Discrimination Index and Distractor Effectiveness. Results: The items analyzed had Difficulty Index (p) were acceptable (50%), too easy (10%) and too difficult (10%). The Discrimination Index (d) were good (50%), excellent (30%) and acceptable (20%). Since all the items had response more than 5% and were functional distractors, the Distractor effectiveness was zero. Conclusion: Item analysis can tell us if an item was too easy or too difficult and how it can be discriminated between high and low achievers and also all the distractors were effective.
Keywords: MCQs; Item Analysis; Difficulty Index; Discrimination Index; Distractor Effectiveness.