Retention of Basic Science Information by Senior Medical Students

Yu Ling, David B. Swanson, Kathy Holtzman, and S. Deniz BucakAbstractBackgroundStudies of retention of basic scienceinformation have commonlydemonstrated a knowledge decline asstudents progress through medicaleducation. This study examined itemcharacteristics influencing patterns ofretention.MethodA large content and statisticallyrepresentative sample of basic scienceitems from 2004–2005 forms of UnitedStates Medical Licensing Examination(USMLE) Step 1 was included in unscoredsections of 2004–2005 USMLE Step 2Clinical Knowledge (CK) test forms, andthe performance of 15,000 first-timeexaminees from U.S. and Canadianschools was analyzed to identify itemcharacteristics affecting retention.ResultsAcross the 502 study items, the meanitem difficulty on Step 1 was 76.1%; onStep 2 CK, this value declined to 69.7%.Performance declines were largest inBiochemistry (17.5%) and Microbiology(12.6%). Improvement was onlyobserved for Behavioral Sciences items(8.7%).ConclusionsShifts in examinee performance in thisstudy were similar to those observed inprevious research, although themagnitude of the overall decline wassomewhat larger.