Results
in the first two years ( Thorax , Abdomen , Limbs and Head and Neck ), to be completed within one hour . The test for the Year 1 cohort contained only 65 questions as the topics they had not yet been taught were excluded from their test paper .
The test questions were evenly divided between non-clinical and clinical anatomy in the following body systems : thorax ( n = 19 ), gastrointestinal ( n = 18 ), urogenital ( n = 11 ), lower limb ( n = 17 ), upper limb ( n = 17 ) and head and neck ( n = 18 ).
Table 3 summarizes the score for each anatomical system , by course year . Compared to Years 1 and 2 , thoracic and gastrointestinal anatomy scores improved in Years 3 onwards ( p < 0.0001 ); genitourinary scores were highest in Year 1 ( p = 0.1155 ) while musculoskeletal scores were highest in Years 4 and 5 ( p < 0.0001 ). Head and Neck test scores were largely unchanged from Year 2 onwards ( Table 3 ).
Statistical analysis : Student scores were compared across different years , and analysed by gender , nationality and also between clinical and non-clinical anatomy questions using unpaired t test and ANOVA . The calculated p values are for Dunnett comparisons reported against the Year 1 student scores taken as control .
Results
A total of 250 medical students enrolled in the study , accounting for 33.7 % of the 741 eligible at the time of sampling . The engagement by year of medical school is shown in Table 1 . The results for students in Years 4 and 5 were combined as the participation rates were low .
53 % of the participants were male ; 72 % were of Maltese nationality , 18 % were of other European origin and a further 10 % were non-European .
No difference in overall test score was noted between genders ( p = 0.18 ), or between Maltese and other European candidates ( p = 0.97 ); however , those of non-European origin performed significantly worse ( mean ± SD ; 49.4 ± 16.1 vs 60.2 ± 13.3 , p = 0.0008 ).
Table 2 shows the average of the overall , non-clinical and clinical anatomy scores for students in each year .
The best performing cohort overall and in both clinical and non-clinical anatomy questions were the combined Year 4 and 5 students . Overall test performance was worst in Year 2 students ( p = 0.0085 ). Year 2 students performed significantly worse than students in all other years in non-clinical questions . Year 1 and 2 students fared significantly worst in clinical anatomy questions than students in all other years ( p < 0.0001 ).