Single Best Answer (SBA or One Best Answer) is a written examination form of

multiple choice Multiple choice (MC), objective response or MCQ (for multiple choice question) is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only correct answers from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format is m ...

questions used extensively in

medical education Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, including the initial training to become a physician (i.e., medical school and internship (medical), internship) and additional training thereafter (e.g., Re ...

Structure

A single question is posed with typically five alternate answers, from which the candidate must choose the best answer. This method avoids the problems of past examinations of a similar form described as Single Correct Answer. The older form can produce confusion where more than one of the possible answers has some validity. The newer form makes it explicit that more than one answer may have elements that are correct, but that one answer will be superior. Prior to the widespread introduction of SBAs into medical education, the typical form of examination was true-false

questions. But during the

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled durin ...

, educators found that SBAs would be superior.

References

{{Reflist Medical education