THE IN-TRAINING EXAMINATION IN OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY - AN ATTEMPTTO ESTABLISH A REMEDIATION INDICATOR

OBJECTIVE: With the use of a university- and community hospital-based faculty, we attempted to determine at what performance level remediati on would be recommended. STUDY DESIGN: The Committee on In-Training Ex aminations for Residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology Task Force on St andard-Based Scoring sent the 1991 examination to 16 university- and 1 2 community hospital-based faculty members. Given a standardized defin ition of a ''borderline third-year resident,'' each faculty scored eac h item on the examination on whether that hypothetic resident would or would not correctly answer the item. RESULTS: The mean expectation of correct responses on the 397-item test was 236 (59%). This was identi cal to the score obtained if 2 SDs were subtracted from the actual mea n for all third-year residents taking the examination. University- and community hospital-based faculty members had generally similar expect ations of this defined resident. CONCLUSION: Although poor examination results should not be recommended as the sole determinant for promoti on, it appears that 2 SDs below the mean may be an appropriate score b elow which remediation could be recommended.