Premium
The impact of pre‐matriculation summer educational enrichment program on student performance in medical gross anatomy course (534.6)
Author(s) -
Lu Yuefeng,
Baldwin Stanley,
Sinning Allan,
Case Steven,
Conway Marianne,
Lynch James,
Lehman Michael
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.534.6
Subject(s) - gross anatomy , matriculation , medicine , test (biology) , block (permutation group theory) , medical school , medical education , class (philosophy) , anatomy , mathematics , biology , computer science , paleontology , geometry , artificial intelligence
The University of Mississippi Medical Center offers a seven‐week summer program to students who have been accepted into medical or dental schools but may encounter difficulty because of low scores on MCAT or other adverse factors. Besides concrete academic contents from first year basic science courses (Gross anatomy, Biochemistry and Histology), the program also emphasizes study skills and test‐taking strategies. In the current study, grades in the Medical Gross Anatomy course from the past three years were analyzed. Since contents covered in the summer program match well with the actual Block 1 (back & upper limb) and Block 4 (head & neck) sections, we compared the differences between these two blocks with the other two un‐targeted blocks (2‐thorax & abdomen; 3‐pelvis & lower limb). Result 1: Compared with the rest of the class, summer participants performed either at or above the class average for Block 1 and 4 exams; in contrast, their grades were lower or not different for Block 2 and 3 exams. Result 2: Compared with themselves after being normalized with the rest of the class, summer participants did significantly better in covered blocks. In conclusion, the summer program is a valuable opportunity for educationally disadvantaged students, providing a useful simulation of the rigors of medical school and preparing them to achieve better results.