The progress test as a diagnostic tool for a new PBL curriculum.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Curriculum Assessment
• Health Sciences

Background:

• King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) utilizes a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum.
• A progress test is employed to evaluate the effectiveness of basic medical and clinical sciences education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess medical student performance across different curriculum years.
• Utilize a United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)-based test focusing on core medical and clinical sciences.

Main Methods:

• Administered a USMLE-based progress test covering nine subjects: anatomy, physiology, histology, epidemiology, biochemistry, behavioral sciences, pathology, pharmacology, and immunology/microbiology.
• Analyzed data from three consecutive academic years, including all first- through fourth-year medical students.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a strong positive correlation between progress test scores and students' Grade Point Average (GPA).
• Students performed better in clinical science topics compared to basic medical science topics.
• Lower performance was observed in specific basic medical science disciplines: pharmacology, biochemistry, behavioral sciences, and histology.

Conclusions:

• The progress test serves as a valuable metric for evaluating both basic and clinical medical sciences curricula.
• The findings are actively informing curriculum modifications to enhance medical education at KSAU-HS.