Correlation Between the Comprehensive NBRC Secured TMC SAE and the TMC Credentialing Exam

Abstract

Background:

Since 2015, the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) has made available a Comprehensive Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) Self-Assessment Examination (SAE) for RT educational programs. The contents and difficulty level of the TMC SAE are similar to the actual TMC credentialing exam. For this reason, the SAE is used by some RT programs as one of the accreditation outcome measures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the TMC SAE and the TMC credentialing exam.

Methods:

On April 6, 2018, 14 senior RT students (class of 2018) took the TMC SAE (Form 2015) under a proctored condition with a time limit of 3 hours. The individual score of the TMC SAE was recorded and compared with the respective score of the actual TMC credentialing exam. The scores of both exams were obtained via the online NBRC school reports. Pearson Correlation and t-value were calculated to evaluate the correlation and degree of differences between the scores.

Results:

As of June 1, 2018, 11 RT graduates of class of 2018 took the TMC credentialing exam. The mean scores for the TMC SAE and TMC credentialing exam were 94. 3 (N=14) and 104. 7 (N=11), respectively. Ten of 11 graduates (91%) earned or exceeded the NBRC high cut score of 94 on the TMC credentialing exam. Eight of 11 graduates scored higher on the TMC credentialing exam than on the TMC SAE. One graduate scored the same and two graduates scored lower on the TMC credentialing exam. The calculated r was 0.257 and the calculated t was 0.445.

Conclusions:

There was a positive but weak correlation between the TMC SAE and the TMC credentialing exam. The scores between these two exams do not show significant differences at the 0.05 confidence level. A majority of graduates (8 of 11 or 73%) earned a higher score on the credentialing exam than on the TMC SAE. This is possibly due to the time-lapse (ie, more preparation time) between the exams and the high-stake nature of the credentialing exam. A small sample size is a limitation of this study.