The NPTE Workshop for Faculty

Thanks to CETL for supporting my attendance at the NPTE workshop for Faculty. One of the most difficult parts of my job as an Assistant Professor is constructing tests.

This conference focused the entire first day on the process of writing multiple choice questions. They presented the Principles of effective multiple choice item writing and reviewed the common terminology of test questions. The rules for writing items and adding levels of difficulty by changing the word order and the amount of critical thinking needed to answer the questions was also covered.

The conference also covered avoiding cues that may lead a good guesser to the right answer even though they may not know the material.

The second day of the conference covered the National Physical Therapy Exam for Licensure. The process of determining what is "entry level" knowledge and how this can be tested was covered. They defined the entire process from survey to item writing to question banks and then to pulling the right questions to produce different tests that are of the same difficulty was covered.

This was a fascinating workshop and since I am the Chair of the Comprehensive Exam Committee in the Physical Therapy Department of the School of Health Sciences, I will be able to use this information over and over again.

Thanks again for this opportunity.