The modified essay question: an evaluation of its use in a family medicine clerkship.

This paper describes the extensive experience of the Department of Family Medicine at Jefferson Medical College in utilizing the modified essay question (MEQ) as a final examination for its required third-year clerkship in family medicine. The results of a preliminary study are presented, comparing the MEQ as a method of evaluation with the multiple choice question (MCQ) format on similar content material. MCQ performance was found to be a better predictor of National Board Part I and II scores, but neither format was found to be a good predictor of postgraduate performance. The data were statistically significant (P less than 0.05) that MEQ performance was related to postgraduate performance in the area of professional attitude while the MCQ was not; however, the number of students in the analysis was small. Additional studies are planned to test this hypothesis further.