Individual readiness assurance tests (i-RATs) in pre-clinical TBL are almost universally MCQ-based, mostly closed-book, typically 5 to 30 items lasting 10 to 30 minutes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? i-RATs were almost universally implemented using multiple-choice questions with a single best answer, mostly closed-book, typically comprising 5 to 30 items and 10 to 30 minutes duration. → Ahmad-Naik Danish 2026

Evidence¶

Ahmad-Naik Danish 2026¶

Ahmad-Naik Danish, Webb Alexandra, Namboothiri Vaishnavi Krishnan, Valter Krisztina. (2026). The practices and strategies for implementing team-based learning in pre-clinical medical education: a systematic review. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-08713-x

q2 · i? · review · r3

Narrative synthesis of readiness assurance practices across the 37 included studies, summarised in Fig. 3. The review reports i-RATs "almost universally implemented using multiple-choice questions (MCQs) with a single best answer".

"Across the reviewed studies, i-RATs were almost universally implemented using multiple-choice questions (MCQs) with a single best answer to assess foundational knowledge before team collaboration (Fig. 3)"

Ahmad-Naik Danish 2026 (2)¶

q2 · i? · review · r2

The same synthesis section reports format parameters: most i-RATs closed-book, "typically comprising 5 to 30 items, and 10 to 30 min duration", administered in person or via online platforms.

"Most i-RATs were conducted in a closed-book format [29, 37, 54, 57], typically comprising 5 to 30 items, and 10 to 30 min duration [14, 38, 50]."

Discussion¶

TBL remains largely supplementary in pre-clinical medical education, with only a few institutions using it as the primary teaching method — related
Team RATs almost always reuse the i-RAT MCQs immediately afterwards, with in-session immediate feedback via IF-AT mechanisms and facilitator-led clarification — related
Students perform significantly higher on the team portion of the Readiness Assessment Test than on the individual portion in a TBL laboratory module — related
In both TBL formats, tRAT and iSAT scores significantly improve over preceding iRAT scores — related
Students' IRAT scores were consistently poorer than their TRAT scores, suggesting team collaboration benefits team test performance — related
Both course sections show the same team-over-individual RAT trend despite a significant difference in scores between the sections — related
Included studies report positive correlations between TBL participation and assessment performance, with i-RAT scores predicting final examination performance — related
Pre-clinical TBL research is dominated by first-year, in-person implementations, with most studies using classical rather than modified TBL — related
Most published studies of prescribing competence assessment use multiple-choice formats, with scenario-based skills tests, short answer questions and calculations also common — related
Multiple-choice question scores may not fully represent medical students' overall performance — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-31`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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