The Impact of Educational Resources and Perceived Preparedness on Medical Education Performance

Abstract

Introduction: Undergraduate medical education has evolved necessarily with the increasing utilization of technology and the availability of ancillary resources developed for medical students. However, medical educational resources are expensive and there have been few studies validating these resources for their ability to significantly modify student exam performance. Methods: A post-exam survey was devised to evaluate medical students for resource usage, student-perceived preparedness, and exam performance. Results: Students who felt more prepared for exams performed better than students who felt less prepared (p =.017). Students who watched didactic lectures online and those who utilized peer-to-peer tutoring outperformed students who did not use these resources (p =.035, p =.008). Analyses of the data show that none of the purchased resources utilized significantly improved student exam performance. The majority of students used between six and eight resources for exam preparation. There may be a slightly negative association with the quantity of resources used and exam scores (p =.18). Discussion: Contrary to traditional confidence studies that correlate overconfidence with underperformance, medical students who reported feeling more prepared for exams performed better than students who felt less prepared. Conclusion: Medical students may have a more complete grasp of their knowledge base and deficits, which may enable a more accurate match between exam expectations and academic performance. This post-exam survey method can be customized and applied to evaluate resource utility as it pertains to specific undergraduate medical education curricula at individual institutions.