Using Precourse Formative Written Testing in a Pharmacology Class Greatly Increases Medical Students’ Performance in Final Written Summative Tests

Figure 1

The initial voluntary test (pretest) contained 30 multiple-choice questions (single best choice, MC) with a passing grade of 60%. Students were motivated to take the initial test by the promise to get merit-based supplementary bonus points in the final examination. The final, obligatory test at the end of the course lectures contained the very same set of multiples choice questions. Students of a different semester which obtained the very same obligatory test after a course of pharmacology but without pretest served as control group. Total number of participating students: control group, n = 219; voluntary pretest, n = 147; obligatory test, n = 179; obligatory test without pretest, n = 37 (five students participated in the pretest but not in the obligatory test).

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