Are long hours and hard work detrimental to end-clerkship examination scores?

BACKGROUND: Third-year medical students' complaints focus on the number of hours worked and subsequent lack of study time among three general surgery blocks. We hypothesize that this difference between the surgical blocks doe s not adversely influence student examination scores. METHODS: Student scores for the academic years 1996-97 to 1997-98 for the N ational Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) surgery subtests were compiled. A comparison of two "slow"' general surgery blocks (B/C) with one "busy" blo ck (A) was made using a two-tailed t test. A multiple regression analysis w as also employed. Finally, United Stales Medical Licensing Examination (USM LE) part I scores were used to determine equivalency of groups. RESULTS: NO significant difference existed between block A and blocks B/C i n USMLE part I and NBME (P = 0.35 and 0.16 respectively). However, USMLE an d rotation sequence influenced NBME scores (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The data suggest that no difference exists in examination score s between students assigned to a busy general surgery block versus those st udents assigned to slow blocks.(C) 1999 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.