Improving learning during pediatric lectures with multiple choice questions

To evaluate the role of multiple choice questions (MCQs) administered at the conclusion of the lecture in improving medical student learning.

This prospective interventional study was conducted in a Medical College. In ten randomly chosen pediatric lectures delivered to prefinal year medical students, MCQs were administered at the conclusion of the lecture and the answers were discussed with the students. After the series of lectures, students were evaluated by hundred 'single best response' MCQs with half from the lectures with MCQs self-assessment (MSA group) and the rest were from the other set of lectures (WMSA group). Scores from both groups were compared using paired 't' test.

When the scores from MSA and WMSA groups were compared for the study population, no significant difference was noted. A significant difference (p = 0.003) was found between the groups, when the mean (± SD) scores of the men (25.2 ± 4.8 in the MSA group and 28.6 ± 7.3 in the WMSA group) were compared. No difference was seen among women, whose mean (± SD) scores in the MSA and the WMSA group were 26.6 ± 6.9 and 26.3 ± 6.9 respectively. When the scores of the first half of the session was analyzed, there was significant difference between the two groups among men (p = 0.0001) implying that lectures with MCQs self-assessment improved the long-term retention.

MCQs' based self-assessment at the conclusion of the lecture does not improve the learning among prefinal year medical students. However, this study has shown the usefulness of MCQs based self-assessment among male medical students.