Student failures on first-year medical basic science courses and the USMLE step 1: a retrospective study over a 20-year period

Abstract

Correlates of achievement in the basic science years in medical school and on the Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®), (Step 1) in relation to preadmission variables have been the subject of considerable study. Preadmissions variables such as the undergraduate grade point average (uGPA) and Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) scores, solely or in combination, have previously been found to be predictors of achievement in the basic science years and/or on the Step 1. The purposes of this retrospective study were to: (1) determine if our statistical analysis confirmed previously published relationships between preadmission variables (MCAT, uGPA, and applicant pool size), and (2) study correlates of the number of failures in five M1 courses with those preadmission variables and failures on Step 1. Statistical analysis confirmed previously published relationships between all preadmission variables. Only one course, Microscopic Anatomy, demonstrated significant correlations with all variables studied including the Step 1 failures. Physiology correlated with three of the four variables studied, but not with the Step 1 failures. Analyses such as these provide a tool by which administrators will be able to identify what courses are or are not responding in appropriate ways to changes in the preadmissions variables that signal student performance on the Step 1.

Keywords: USMLE step 1; basic science courses; basic science education; failure rates; medical education; preadmission variables.