Weighting Content Specifications for the National Medical Licensing Examination via Group Analytic Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Job and practice analysis is a commonly used method for determining examination content specifications. However, difficulties arise when many domains are present, as mainstream approaches do not fully adhere to the essence of the weighing process, namely a “comparison‐evaluation‐decision” framework for assigning percentage values to the content. Stemming from the principle of comparing multiple criteria for making decisions, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) provides an appropriate solution that circumvents the aforementioned obstacle. We propose using an extended version of AHP called Group AHP (GAHP) to weight content specifications for standardized medical education assessment. Specifically, GAHP is integrated with the Delphi method and expected to aid exam developers in integrating feedback from diverse experienced physicians when determining content specifications for the National Medical Licensing Examination (NMLE) in China. The complete flow of the proposed approach was demonstrated in this study with an application to the NMLE.