Percepciones y satisfacción sobre una prueba de progreso en estudiantes de medicina

Introduction

Progress tests have a positive impact on medical students' learning. The longer the year of study, the better students perceive and the more satisfied they are with this assessment. Our objective was to evaluate the trend of perceptions and level of satisfaction with respect to a progress test at a university in Lima, Peru.

Methods

We conducted an analytical cross-sectional study on all second- to sixth-year students exposed to a progress test who participated voluntarily. The self-administered questionnaire assessed three variables “Perceptions about the progress test”, “Perceptions about preparation for the progress test” and “Satisfaction” with items on a 5-category Likert scale, from strongly disagree/very dissatisfied/ (1 point) to strongly agree/very satisfied (5 points). We performed a descriptive analysis of the items and evaluated changes in scores between study years.

Results

263 students participated, 142 were women (54.0%). We found that the favorable perception on progress tests decreases from the fourth year compared to the second year (H Kruskal-Wallis = 36.2, p < 0.001). Regarding satisfaction, we only found a difference in the score between the sixth and second year (H Kruskal-Wallis = 36.2, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

In medical students, the favorable perception decreases the more tests performed. The trend in satisfaction is not clear. Students report that the length of the test generates fatigue, however, they value the subject matter and the evaluation of the questions in a clinical context.