Ataur Rahman, Najeebur Rab Ansari.
A comparative study of true/false M.C.Qs with two different scoring methods: negative marking versus no negative marking.
Pak J Surg Jan ;19(1):34-7.

This prospective comparative study was carried out at Peoples Medical College, Nawabshah, to find the differences in the scoring patterns of True/False type MCQs – with and without negative marking, when used as an examination tool at undergraduate level as there is no uniformity in the scoring strategy of different examining bodies and universities. Twenty Final Year MBBS students were asked to solve a paper containing 20 MCQs (5 items each) twice with a gap of 10 minutes. In the first attempt the scoring strategy was with negative marking, whereas in second attempt there was no negative marking. The results revealed that there was a 20% improvement in solving the paper when there was no negative marking; the difficulty index also improved. It is, therefore, concluded that MCQ examinations without negative marking are better examination tools.

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