This is the abstract of the research study that has been accepted for poster presentation. Please read it if you would like to gain some understanding of the purpose and design of this study.
What they, the students, say about medical school curriculum and commercial test preparation resources for the USMLE Step 1 exam?
When preparing for the USMLE Step 1 exam, medical students heavily rely upon a burgeoning range of commercial test preparation courses, materials and question banks. This study aims to (1) identify the most efficient and high impact commercial test preparation resources and offer a recommendation to students (2) explore what suggestions can be offered to the design of the pre-clinical medical school curriculum in order to help students be better prepared for the exam and thus reduce the heavy dependence on commercial test preparation materials.
Students who have passed the USMLE step 1 exam are requested to participate in an anonymous online survey. The survey gathers data such as the name of the medical school, USMLE Step 1 score, medical school GPA, MCAT Score, the types of commercial test preparation resources and question banks used and the extent of utilization of these resources. Students are asked to rate the usefulness and contribution of these resources, the impact of the student’s medical school curriculum, the usefulness of test questions encountered in the student’s school exams, the usefulness of the in-class lectures and resources offered by the medical school. A student-generated Impact-Score for the medical school curriculum and commercial test preparation resource shall be obtained from these rating. Additionally, students are asked to identify some of the most beneficial features of commercial test preparation resources that can be adapted and incorporated into the pre-clinical medical school curriculum. Descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis shall be performed using the SPSS statistics software package.
This is a recent ongoing study. Some of the expected outcomes include identifying the relative impact of medical school curriculum vs commercial test preparation resources, identifying the adequacy or inadequacy of test preparation training provided by the medical school, identifying appropriate interventions during the pre-clinical curriculum that can improve student’s performance, and identifying the set of most valuable test preparation resources.
Several different test preparation methods and resources have become available for students who prepare for the USMLE Step 1 exam. This study hopes to provide an evidence-based recommendation for efficiently using these resources and to shine new light on the impact of pre-clinical medical school curriculum in preparing students for this important exam.