Background
Diagnosis and Treatment Planning is one of four parts of the ORE Part 2 exam which dentists from overseas need to sit and pass to be able to practice as a dentist in the UK. The exam is operated by the Consortium on behalf of the GDC.
Maxexam was chosen as the system on which to develop and run these exams following the re-negotiation of the contract with the GDC in 2011, and after the Consortium had explored a number of suppliers. They were keen to find a system enabling real-time digital marking of exams and Maxinity were able to demonstrate that their Maxexam product best fitted this brief.
Current Situation
Improved exam review process
Prior to the introduction of Maxexam, exam questions needed to be sent out manually by email, with the people reviewing the exam feeding back in the same way.
Now the exam review process works much more quickly and easily with the ability to just tick which examiners need to see the exam when developing it so making the process quicker. Additionally as all reviewer’s comments are tracked on the system this makes the actual review process itself quicker and easier as all comments are to hand and there is a full audit trail.
Accurate results quickly
Before Maxexam, the exams were marked on paper and the results copied across manually to other systems to produce and collate results. This meant the process was slow and open to error. The introduction of Maxexam has enabled real time marking and immediate results collation – both speeding up the process and reducing potential errors in transcribing marks.
Improved Calibration Process
It is vital for the lead examiners to understand how consistent the marking across examiners is – and the introduction of Maxexam has made this process much easier with results showing as a heat map so it is simple and easy to identify ‘hawk’ and ‘dove’ examiners. As the heat map is available immediately after examiners have marked the calibration candidate it provides the lead examiners with instant feedback to facilitate the discussion of any differences in examiner judgements and provide training to agree a final calibrated level before the start of the exam.
In the words of our client:
"The introduction of Maxexam has enabled us to improve both the exam development and marking processes. Peer review during the development of the exam is simple and easy, and the ability to conduct real time marking combined with getting results almost straight away is excellent. I'd also like to give a special mention to the team at Maxinity who are very approachable, always happy to listen and who will try to accommodate changes wherever possible."
