Weekly near-peer tutoring sessions improve students’ performance on basic medical sciences and USMLE Step1 examinations

Abstract

Purpose This study examined the relationship between attendance at weekly near-peer tutoring (NPT) sessions offered in the second year of medical school and academic performance on basic science and USMLE Step 1 examinations. Methods Twenty-four weekly NPT sessions were delivered across all modules in the second year of medical school. Attendance of the sessions was recorded and students were divided into three groups: high (16–24 sessions), moderate (7–15 sessions), and low-no (0–6 sessions) attendance groups. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to determine the relationship between students’ frequency of attendance and their performance on overall basic sciences, two NBME CBSEs, and USMLE Step 1 examinations. Students’ academic performance was also analyzed using ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test (p < 0.05) to compare differences between the three groups. Results Pearson correlation analyses revealed that attending peer tutoring sessions was significantly correlated with students’ performance in overall basic sciences, CBSE mid-year, CBSE final, and USMLE Step 1 examinations. The high attendance groups significantly outperformed the low-no attendance groups on overall basic sciences (p = 0.007), CBSE mid-year (p < 0.001), CBSE final (p < 0.018), and USMLE Step 1 (p = 0.048) examinations. Conclusions Attending NPT sessions are significantly correlated with students’ performance on basic sciences and on USMLE Step1 examinations. Attendance of weekly NPT sessions is a valuable experience for M2 students.