RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A critique of the specialty certificate examinations of the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 141
OP 144
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.10-2-141
VO 10
IS 2
A1 John Cookson
YR 2010
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/10/2/141.abstract
AB The Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK has developed a programme to deliver specialty certificate examinations. These are knowledge-based examinations to be passed by all senior trainees in most medical specialties seeking a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT). These examinations have been evaluated on their validity, reliability, educational impact, cost effectiveness, acceptability and standard setting methodology on the basis of internal evidence and the results of a published pilot. The evidence so far suggests that though reasonable reliability (reproducibility) can be achieved, validity (testing what is intended) may be lacking. Educational impact, cost effectiveness, and acceptability require more evidence. Consistency in standard setting is difficult.