Determining Whether Pharmacy Students Can Accurately Recall Items on an Examination Using Their Collective Memory

Abstract

Objective. To determine the extent to which students can recreate a recently completed examination from memory. Methods. After two mid-term examinations, students were asked, as a class, to recreate recently completed examinations. Students were given 48 hours to recreate the examination, including details about the questions and answer choices. The results were compared to the original examination to determine the accuracy of students’ recall and reproduction of content. Results. The students were able to collectively recreate 90% of the questions on the two examinations. For the majority of questions (51%), students also recreated the question as well as the correct response and at least one incorrect response. The majority of questions that the students recreated were of medium to high accuracy as they contained detailed phrasing that aligned with the original question on the examination. Conclusion. The collective memory of a group of students may allow them to accurately recreate the majority of a completed examination from memory. Based on the findings of this study and tenets of social psychology, faculty should consider the potential implications for examination security, whether to provide feedback to students on examinations, and whether completed examinations should be released to students following the examination.