Exam Question
Review Form
Question Number:
____
Date Reviewed: ____
Written or Bench:
W/B
Reviewer:
____
1. Question understandable and referenced appropriately?
Y/N
2. Question relevant for use in AVDC exam?
Y/N
3. Five possible answers included? Are they all clearly written and make
grammatical sense when considered with the stem? Four of the answers are
distractors - are all of the answers plausible as being correct (i.e. the
candidate would need to know the correct answer to get the question right,
rather than be able to figure out the correct answer because the distractors
are implausible and thus can be eliminated from consideration)? Y/N
4. Bench questions: Picture clearly shows the item on which the question is
based, and the stem and all five answers relate to the item in the picture? Y/N
5. Angoff score: ______ (See discussion below)
Recommendation from reviewer (delete as necessary):
A. Question is well written and appropriate for use as is.
B. Question is potentially usable, but the stem or one or more answers should be
re-written.
C. The question should not be used.
Comments from reviewer:
Save this review as: {Question number} {YourLASTNAME} {Angoff Score} {Written
or Bench} (Do NOT include brackets. Example: 200852 LEWIS 7.0 W) and send it to
the Exam Committee chair by uploading it to DMS while the document this review
relates to is open (click the Attach File command on the command bar at the top of the
screen).
The Angoff score is a number ranging from 0-100 that represents your estimation of how
many out of 100 minimally acceptable candidates would correctly answer this question.
You make the Angoff score estimate by reading the question without having the correct
answer indicated – so you may or may not know the correct answer yourself!
Minimal Acceptable Candidate (MAC) is an entry-level veterinary dental specialist
who is minimally qualified, i.e. has the minimum knowledge base that will permit the
individual to manage cases in a minimally successful manner as a veterinary dental
specialist. Some specialists will stay at the minimally acceptable level for the duration of
their career, and most improve as they continue to gain experience and practical
knowledge practice while working as a specialist. (Note that at the time of taking the
examination, many AVDC examination candidates will know more then than they will
ever know subsequently, simply because their reading in preparation for the examination
means there is a lot of information stored in relatively short-term memory.)
The AVDC web site Examination Information document states that the Passing grade for
each of the three parts of the examination is 70%. By ABVS rules, AVDC is permitted to
lower (but not increase) the passing grade in any one each year.
When the Exam Comm chair puts together the examination, ideally the mean Angoff
score of all questions included in the exam is 70%. For the Written and Bench
examinations, the passing grade is 70% unless the mean Angoff scores for all the
questions used in the exam is less than 70%, in which case the mean Angoff score is used
as the Passing grade.
When you are writing down an Angoff score for a particular question, use 70 as the
Angoff score for a question that an entry-level veterinary dental specialist must know,
but that a well-informed general practitioner may not know. General guidelines for other
Angoff scores below:
100- Questions that are ‘very easy’ – i.e. every dog or cat owner would likely know the
answer.
90- Questions that are ‘easy’ – i.e. every competent general veterinary practitioner would
know the answer.
80- Questions that a general practitioner with a special interest in veterinary dentistry or a
Fellow of the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry would answer correctly.
60- Questions that are difficult – i.e. an entry-level specialist may be unable to choose
between two seemingly correct answers, or a question that includes details of
immunological factors that are beyond basic immunological knowledge that a dental
specialist with basic understanding of the pathophysiology of periodontal disease.
50- A question that is very difficult and/or consists of knowledge that will be of little
direct value to a practicing dental specialist, but which may be known by a small portion
of veterinary dentists because s/he constantly keeps up with the literature (e.g. the % of
wild cats on a South Atlantic island reported by Dr. Verstraete to have tooth resorption is:
12.3%; 19.7%; 13.8% or 43.1%)
0 - Is this question so arcane that only someone who is doing a research project on this
specific topic will know the answer,.
If a question seems to be between two of the categories mentioned above, assign an
Angoff score of e.g. 65.
Knowing the correct answer is not the purpose of the Angoff process – all you are
asked to do is assess the difficulty of the question.
For more information on the Angoff score, read the attached .pdf document