Available for Aquifer Family Medicine – Aquifer Pediatrics – Aquifer Radiology

Access to our 100-question summative multiple-choice exams for Aquifer Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Radiology will be available through June 30, 2023. You will be unable to request exams for those disciplines after June 15, 2023.

Aquifer Calibrate is our innovative new formative assessment system for Aquifer Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Radiology. This new test-enhanced learning tools will deliver granular feedback with recommendations for efficient, structured remediation, and self-directed study.

Aquifer will not offer a summative exam option beyond June 2023. Learn more about Aquifer Calibrate.

All Aquifer Exams are based on national curriculum standards:

  • Aquifer Family Medicine: Created by Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) educators, based specifically on the Family Medicine Clerkship Curriculum.
  • Aquifer Pediatrics: Created by The Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) educators based specifically on the COMSEP Curriculum.
  • Aquifer Radiology: Created by Association of University Radiologist (AUR) educators, and consists of a subset of the AMSER Standardized Exam and additional questions,  based specifically on the AUR Curriculum. Please note that part of the Aquifer Radiology exam is a subset of the AMSER Standardized Exam, students should not take both.

Aquifer’s current validated, multiple-choice summative exams include an assortment of questions related to cases presented in random order and are designed to test how well students have learned the concepts presented. In addition, the data from these exams enables Aquifer to analyze student performance on each item, strengthening our ability to provide comparative national data for each exam.

We recommend that students complete as many cases as possible in the corresponding course before taking the exam—however, educators do not need to require students to complete all cases in order to use exams. Aquifer Exams cover the full range of content included in each course–we do not currently provide customized exams.

Exam Validation

Aquifer’s 100-question multiple choice tests have been extensively reviewed by a national committee and vetted via a rigorous validation process. Ninety of the items on the 100-item exam have passed our rigorous validation process. The exam also contains ten “test” items, currently undergoing validation, which are randomly inserted. We do not include performance on these items as part of the student grade. We use this information to replenish the exam bank with valid questions.

Each academic year, we develop new exam forms. Selected questions are written by medical educators recruited from their respective national medical student education organizations. Before being chosen for inclusion on a form, questions are reviewed by a group of medical educators to ensure that they are accurate, relevant, and adhere to assessment best practices. Each question is validated with psychometric criteria so that they properly assess student competence. In the event a question does not meet our exacting standards, it is not used on an exam until it has been revised and revalidated.

Exam Requests

For security purposes, an Aquifer exam may be requested only by your institution’s designated Course Administrator, Clerkship Administrator, and/or Clerkship Director. If you meet this criteria and need to request an Aquifer Exam, please complete our Exam Request Form.