ABSTRACT
Assessment is defined by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999, p. 172) as: “Any systematic method of obtaining information from tests and other sources, used to draw inferences about characteristics of people, objects, or programs.” This is a broad definition, but it summarizes the scope of this book, which presents current information about both assessment theory and its practice in health professions education. The focus of this book is on the assessment of learning and skill acquisition in people, with a strong emphasis on broadly defined achievement testing, using a variety of methods.
