The progress test as a diagnostic tool for a new PBL curriculum

Context: The College of Medicine at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) is running a PBL-based curriculum. A progress test was used to evaluate components of the basic medical and clinical sciences curriculum. Objective: To evaluate the performance of students at different levels of the college of medicine curriculum through USMLE-based test that focused on basic medical and clinical sciences topics. Methods: The USMLE-based basic medical and clinical sciences progress test has been conducted since 2007. It covers nine topics, including: anatomy; physiology; histology; epidemiology; biochemistry; behavioral sciences, pathology, pharmacology and immunology/microbiology. Here we analyzed results of three consecutive years of all students in years 1-4. Findings: There was a good correlation between progress test results and students' GPA. Progress test results in the clinical topics were better than basic medical sciences. In basic medical sciences, results of pharmacology, biochemistry, behavioral sciences and histology gave lower results than the other disciplines. Conclusions: Results of our progress test proved to be a useful indicator for both basic medical sciences and clinical sciences curriculum. Results are being utilized to help in modifying our curriculum.