International variation in performance by clinical discipline and task on the United States medical licensing examination step 2 clinical knowledge component.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate country-to-country variation in performance across clinical science disciplines and tasks for examinees taking the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) component of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. METHOD: In 2012 the authors analyzed demographic characteristics, total scores, and percent-correct clinical science discipline and task scores for more than 88,500 examinees taking Step 2 CK for the first time during the 2008-2010 academic years. For each examinee and score, differences between the score and the mean performance of examinees at U.S. MD-granting medical schools were calculated, and mean differences by country of medical school were tabulated for a..