Agreement Rate between Basic Sciences and Pre-Internship Comprehensive Exams in Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Iranian universities of medical sciences are ranking by the results of biannual Pre- Internship and Basic Sciences Comprehensive Exams (PICE and BSCE). The present study was conducted to determine the agreement rate of these two exams as an index for ranking Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) amongst other universities.

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, KUMS ranking results were surveyed in 20 PICE and 25 BSCE periods during 1990–2002 by determining percentage ranking and median grade as a cut-off point.  Kappa Agreement Coefficients (KAC) in two cases (contemporaneous and 3-year intervals) was calculated.  This coefficient was separately calculated for "exam month performance" (September and February) and "number of participants" (<50 and ≥50).

Results: Kappa agreement coefficient for two exams in all periods for the first case (contemporaneous) was 0.20, compared to 0.05 for the second case (3-year intervals between two exams). KAC in each of the cases was calculated for four sub-groups (September, February, <50 and ≥50 students). Only in the first case (<50 students sub-group) it was statistically significant (p=0.004).

Conclusion: In this study the agreement rate between PICE and BSCE for two different cases was calculated. In both cases KAC was very low, showing no valuable agreement
between the two mentioned exams in their assessment of KUMS ranking amongst other universities. This means that each exam evaluates two different aspects of university ranking. Regarding the high KAC in two exams in the "<50 students" sub-group it seems that the special characteristics of students who could not pass their courses on time and thus could not participate in routine comprehensive exams led to this result.