Two hundred and eight second-year students were matched with respect to gender, age, academic standing, minority status, and prior pelvic examination experience. After didactic instruction, individuals from each matched pair were randomly assigned to alternate training modalities—a plastic pelvic model (Gynny) and surrogate patients (Gynecology Teaching Associates, GTAs)—for pelvic examination instruction. A sample of 52 study- and 54 control-group students were then evaluated while they examined women with normal or deviant (hysterectomy/ pregnancy) pelvic anatomy. Communication and manual skills were evaluated on the basis of specially designed instruments in which the components of a ‘good’ pelvic examination were identified and described. Immediately after the objective evaluation, each student was interviewed to determine his/her subjective feelings about the training experience. The subjective data obtained in this way indicated that students evaluated the GTA modality significantly more favorably t...