Computerized student testing as a learning tool in a family practice clerkship.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate a computerized multiple choice testing system developed to teach family medicine core content in a junior clerkship. METHODS: Students were tested in a minimum of 10 content areas based upon a pretest, and answered sets of 10 randomly generated questions in each area. Students received immediate feedback on scores and correct answers. RESULTS: A total of 192 students took 10,184 computerized tests. Mean student scores rose significantly with successive tests. Scores on the written final clerkship examination correlated with computerized testing scores. Students accepted the computerized testing system well. CONCLUSIONS: The computerized testing system led to immediate learning, but its effects on long-term learning were less clear.