An experiment involving reading assignments in a medicine clerkship

Sixty-one students from two medicine rotations were assigned randomly to experimental and control groups. Instruction was the same for both except that the control group was assigned required readings while the experimental group was instructed to find and read information relating directly to their patients' conditions. The groups were compared in terms of their performances on a final written examination, on the National Board of Medical Examiners Part II examination (NBME II), and on the Medicine Subtest of the NBME II, and also in terms of the effects of prior clinical rotations on their examination scores. Although no statistically significant differences were found, other findings suggest that several areas of clinical instruction warrant further investigation.