Progress Testing in Undergraduate Dental Education: The Peninsula Experience

Method: Data were collected for Progress Tests conducted from 2007-2013 involving seven cohorts of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students in thirteen sittings. The data were analysed in SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) to identify the differences in the performance of students in successive years. Reliability of test scores was calculated using Cronbach's Alpha. Test-retest reliability of students' scores was assessed using the Pearson correlation and 95 percent confidence intervals in successive sittings. Item facility was calculated for each of the 100 items in each of the progress test sitting for all cohorts. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to identify variations in total scores, correct, incorrect and do not know responses based on year-groups, gender, ethnicity and any disabilty of students.  

Results: The overall reliability of progress testing was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha > 0.75). Test-retest reliability scores were also satisfactory (Pearson correlation 0.884). The dental knowledge of students increases steadily over successive years as expected. The scores and correct responses mirror each other while, “don’t know” responses decrease steadily. However, the “incorrect” responses stay relatively stable. Marked gender differences in performance of students were noted with females outscoring males. With regards to ethnicity, significant differences were noted and white students outscore students from Asian and other ethnicities.  However, all ethnic groups have similar levels of “don’t know” responses, and the difference in score is thus related to correct/incorrect responses.  

Conclusion: Progress testing is a unique assessment tool which permits reliable longitudinal assessment of applied knowledge across the curriculum.There is merit in using progress testing for assessment of undergraduate dental student and monitoring the intergration of applied dental knowedge during successive years.