BACKGROUND፡ Fostering critical thinking (CT) is one of the most important missions in medical education. Concept mapping is a method used to plan and create medical care through a diagrammatic representation of patient problems and medical interventions. Concept mapping as a general method can be used to improve CT skills in medical students. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of concept mapping on CT skills of medical students.METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 100 second-year medical students which take an anatomy course. Participants were randomly assigned into a control group (lecture-based) and an intervention group (concept mapping). CT levels of medical students were assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Data were analyzed using independent sample t-test.RESULTS: Before intervention, CT scores of the intervention and control groups were 6.68 ± 2.55 and 6.64±2.74, respectively, and after intervention, they were 11.64±2.29 and 10.04 ± 3.11, respectively. Comparison of mean score differences for both groups before and after intervention demonstrated that CT scores in the experimental group significantly increased after intervention (P=0.021).CONCLUSIONS: Medical students who were taught through concept mapping showed an increase in CT scores, compared with those in the control group. Medical students require effective CT skills in order to make sound knowledge-based assessment and treatment choices during patient care. Therefore, instructors and planners of medical education are expected to apply this educational strategy for developing CT skills in medical students.

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Objective (s): Multiple choice questions are the central core of the evaluation of medical students. The purpose of this study was to analyze medical and dentistry basic sciences examinations in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Methods: A valid checklist for totally 450 multiple choice questions (225 questions for each field), were analyzed in terms of structure, difficulty index, discrimination index and diversion options. Structure of the questions was analyzed by a checklist consisting of 16 items with yes or no formats. Difficulty and discrimination indexes for each question also were examined. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics were used. Results: There were structural problems with 6 and 5 percent of medical and dentistry questions respectively. In For medical examination on average 50.1% required difficulty indexes, 25.8% required discrimination indexes and 73.5% diversion options were achieved. For dentistry examination on average 50.07% required difficulty indexes, 23.07% required discrimination indexes and 53.46% diversion options were achieved. Conclusion:The findings indicated that frequency of the questions with required difficulty index, were rather good but frequency of the questions with required discrimination index, were relatively very low. Diversion options in medical questions were designed better than dentistry questions. Indeed, it seems that examinations of medical and density students need some revisions and corrections.