TY - JOUR T1 - Editor’s Briefing JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 564 LP - 564 DO - 10.3399/bjgp13X673937 VL - 63 IS - 616 A2 - Jones, Roger Y1 - 2013/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/63/616/564.abstract N2 - Desirable though it might be, there is no such thing as a perfect examination. Concerns about the robustness of both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced high-stakes examinations have been expressed for many years, and proposed solutions include the use of construct-referencing to mitigate some of these difficulties. An examination or assessment can be regarded in much the same way as a laboratory test: subject to false negatives and false positives, and for which a ROC (receiver operating curve) can display the performance of the test under different settings against the standard of proof (the pass mark or the cut-off point). Unsurprisingly, high stakes examinations in medicine — qualifying and licensing examinations — have been subject to a great deal of scrutiny and formal research to determine the presence or absence of systematic error … ER -