Effects of Exam Group Time on Academic Performance

To accommodate large class sizes, students are often divided into smaller groups for laboratory exams. What students do with the additional time they have when placed in a later exam group and how this additional time may impact their exam performance is largely unknown. At the Medical College of Georgia, Year 1 medical students are assigned to sequential time slots for their gross anatomy laboratory exams. The assigned time rotates, so students are not assigned the same time slot for each exam. Purpose & Hypothesis The purpose of this study was to assess whether gross anatomy laboratory exam performance was impacted by having a later exam time. We also examined factors contributing to exam time preferences and how students utilize their time immediately before these exams. We hypothesized that student cohorts would have similar scores on gross anatomy laboratory exams regardless of when they took the exam. Methods Scores from four gross anatomy laboratory exams (Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, Head & Neck, and Neuroanatomy) taken by first year medical students (n=189) during the 2016–2017 academic year were analyzed. Students' overall weighted academic average for the year was also calculated based on end of module grades and number of credit hours for each module. Anatomy lab exam averages and overall Year 1 weighted averages for each exam time cohort were compared using a one‐way ANOVA and Tukey's post‐hoc analysis. At the end of the year, students (n=104) completed a short online survey targeting exam time preferences and how they utilized their time immediately before exams. Data from free response survey questions were themed and quantified for analysis. Results Significant differences in cohort performance between lab groups were only found on the Head & Neck anatomy lab exam. On this exam, students in the first lab group performed significantly better (93% ± 6.3%) than the second (89.9% ± 5.6%) and third (88.9% ± 8.2%) lab group cohorts (p<0.05). However, comparison of the overall Year 1 weighted averages for these exam time cohorts revealed that students in the earlier lab group also had a significantly higher overall Year 1 average (87.5% ± 3.8%) compared to the other cohorts (Cohort 2: 86% ± 3.4%; Cohort 3: 85.2% ± 3.6%) (p<0.05). When surveyed on exam time preference, 75% of respondents preferred to take the exam in the first or second group. Respondents reported that this preference was driven by a desire to finish the exam earlier (46.8%) if they preferred an earlier time slot or for more study time (36.7%) if a later time was preferred. The desire to reduce stress/anxiety minimally affected their preference (13%). If respondents did switch times, scheduling conflicts (42.6%) were cited by the majority who switched to an earlier time slot, while the desire for more study time (65. 5%) was the primary reason cited for switching to a later time slot. However, most students (82.4%) reported never or rarely swapping exam times. Conclusions The results suggest that exam group time does not affect lab exam performance. Cohorts who performed better on the Head & Neck anatomy lab exam were overall academically stronger as determined by their overall weighted Year 1 average. Survey results show that while students may have an exam time preference, their preference does not frequently motivate them to switch groups. Test anxiety does not appear to be a significant motivating factor to switch lab exam times and does not appear to play a role in lab exam performance. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .