Getting Back to Basics with Study Resources in Medical Education: Sometimes Less is More

Medical educators' interest in student perspectives surrounding external study resources, resource preferences, and the academic impact of such resources has been evident in the literature and scholarly meetings of the medical education community for some time now. The transition of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 to Pass/Fail in 2022 added yet another element to this already nuanced matter, as Step 1 preparation has been a presumed driving factor for both the creation and utilization of external resources. Hence, a reevaluation of external resource use in pre-clerkship students is warranted. This longitudinal study investigates students' external resource use patterns throughout their first year of medical school within a clinically oriented, organ systems-based curriculum. We evaluated students' motivations, resource preferences, prioritization of external resources versus class materials, and the impact of resource use on academic performance. We found that our students primarily used external resources to prepare for class exams rather than licensing exams. Despite widespread use, prioritizing external resources over class materials was weakly associated with slightly lower exam scores, and no correlation was found between the number of resources used and academic performance. These results suggest that external resources may not be necessary for academic success and that overreliance on them could potentially detract from curriculum-aligned learning.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02581-8.