Luan Au¹
My Do¹ and Hien Nguyen¹
1 University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Hochiminh City (UMP) 

The Readiness Assurance Test (RAT) is the icon of Team-Based Learning (TBL). Most educators consider RAT is an assessment for learning. The RATs contribute to learners' self- awareness, promote self-learning and re-direct learning processes. Evidence demonstrates that a relevant RAT enhances in-class activity effectiveness, and an irrelevant RAT shoots the entire TBL process down. Hence, crafting relevant RAT is a primary requirement for ensuring TBL effectiveness. Unfortunately, some educators have brought the same way as writing the multiple-choice questions test (MCQs) for composing RAT, consequently making the RAT irrelevant. 

This paper aims to summarize prominent issues influencing the relevance of readiness assurance processes, compare the current practices of writing MCQ with crafting RAT and suggest specific practical points to practitioners for making the RAT more relevant. 

During crafting the RAT, educators should consider respecting the basic technical rules for writing MCQs, aligning the RAT blueprint with the course ELOs, and ensuring that materials elucidate the tested concept. Those are the three general requirements influencing the validity of the RAT. Technically, educators should consider keeping the number of items reasonable, testing concepts rather than assessing separate ideas, focusing on frequently misunderstood concepts and keeping the number of difficult items reasonable. Respecting that allows for saving time and using gained time to achieve teaching purposes. Targeting high-order thinking MCQs, using aggregate, and testing subjects of debates might negatively impact the relevance of RAT, so educators should avoid it. 

References (maximum three) 

European Board for Medical Assessor. 2017. EBMA guidelines for writing multiple-choice questions. Available from:https://www.ebma.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/EBMA- guidelines-for-item-writing-version-2017_3.pdf 

Ngoc PN, Cheng CL, Lin YK. 2020. A meta-analysis on students’ readiness assurance test performance with Team-Based Learning. BMC Medical Education 20:223 

Parmelee DX, Hudes P. 2012. Team-based learning: A relevant strategy in health professionals’ education. Med Teach34(5):411-13