What Does the Essay in Medical School Entrance Exams Measure? (Course name: What does a test measure?)

Problem-Based Learning to Encourage Active Learning and Teamwork Among First Year Medical Students - Student Reports in 2017 -

Abstract

　This study examined essay writing in medical school entrance exams with respect to the types of essay used, the skills they aim to evaluate, and the type of essay most frequently used. Further, we conducted a survey of Juntendo University’s first-year medical students (N=138) to understand how test takers feel about these tests. We found that essays can be classified into five essay types (i.e., theme-based essays, assignment-based essays, English-Japanese essays, subject-related essays, and other types), showing that each essay type aims to measure overlapping but varied abilities. It was also found that overall, 42.3% (44/104) of medical school entrance exams in Japan had essay-writing tests for the period 2014-2017, and that the most popular essay type was assignment-based (52%, 23/44). In contrast, the analysis of the questionnaire answered by students showed that they think that the theme-based type is the most suitable for entrance exams (67%, 61/91), followed by the assignment-based type (16%, 56/93). Three quarters of students thought that essay writing is necessary in entrance exams (77%, 72/93), but the percentage of students who thought their essay had an impact on passing their exam (60%, 56/93) was 17% lower than the percentage of students who thought that essay writing is necessary in entrance exams. We conducted follow-up interviews and presented possible reasons. Based on the results, measures to improve the essay-writing exam system are also suggested.