Abstract: Objective To assess the quality of the histology theory examinations in Peking Union Medical College. Methods A total of 393 theory examination papers in histology for medical students in 8-year clinical medicine program from Grade 2006 to Grade 2010 were evaluated．Results The average score of all the students was 79.5±12.9. There was no obvious difference among each Grade. Analysis for these test papers indicated that the P-value of difficulty varied within the range from 0.77 to 0.84, and the D-value of discrimination increased from 0.26 to 0.34 during these 5 years. The reliabilities and validities for the examinations of all 5 years were satisfying. Further analysis for the test questions revealed that the percentile of high-quality questions increased from 59.09% (Grade 2006) to 88.89% (Grade 2010), and overall 72.17% questions reached the criteria of high quality. The qualities of test questions were significantly improved in terms of both difficulty and discrimination when comparisons were made between those from Grade 2010 vs. Grade 2006. Conclusion The overall qualities of examinations for all 5 years are high, with the qualities of test questions improving over time. However, there are still problems remained to be solved. The evaluation of examinations will provide critical indications for the future improvement of teaching quality and construction of a reliable question bank for histology examination.

Key words: quality analysis for examination, parameters in education evaluation, histology