Book excerpt: This practical guide provides a simple, useful reference to commonly raised questions about medical student assessment. The first part of the book provides succinct information on the general aspects of assessment such as purpose and principles of assessment; technical terms such as validity, reliability, and utility of assessment instruments; and how to choose assessment instruments for a given purpose. Individual assessment instruments are treated in the second part of the guide. The authors focus on about 20 selected assessment instruments currently in use or promising new instruments that are likely to get increased acceptance in future. For each instrument a general description is given, followed by discussion on its uses, limitations, psychometric characteristics, and recommendations for medical teachers. The reference section contains highly selective and well-researched resources, annotated and classified according to their usefulness. Many of these resources are available free on the Internet. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Assessment in Medical Education: An Overview (151 KB). Contents: Principles and Purpose of Assessment: Assessment in Medical Education: An Overview; Key Concepts in Assessment; Special Issues in Assessment in Clinical Medicine; Standard Setting; A Model for Assessment; Assessment of OCyKnowsOCO and OCyKnows HowOCO: Oral Examination/Viva; Long Essay Questions (LEQ); Short Answer Questions (SAQ); Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ); Extended Matching Items (EMI); Key Features Test (KF); Assessment of OCyShows HowOCO: Long Case; Short Case; Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE); Assessment of OCyDoesOCO: Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX); Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS); Clinical Work Sampling (CWS); Checklist; 360-Degree Evaluation; Logbook; Portfolio. Readership: Medical teachers and nursing, dental and para-clinical professionals."