A controlled trial of teaching clinical biochemistry by the Keller Plan

From the third-year class of 196 medical students, 30 were chosen at random to learn clinical biochemistry by the Keller Plan, although one withdrew during the year. Most of the rest of the class acted as controls. All students used a set of printed notes prepared by the Department of Clinical Biochemistry as the basic learning materials. The actual operation of the Keller Plan was satisfactory. On both a practice/review test one month before the end of the year and the final examination in clinical biochemistry, the randomly selected Keller Plan group scored significantly higher than the control group. On final examinations in all other disciplines the groups were indistinguishable. Students and teacher were enthusiastic about the system.