Romaní-Romaní Franco, Gutiérrez César
Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad de Piura, Lima, Perú.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 5;20(8):e0330029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330029. eCollection 2025.
Progress testing is a longitudinal assessment method used to monitor the acquisition and retention of knowledge throughout medical training. While progress tests (PTs) have been widely adopted internationally through collaborative networks of medical schools, in Peru, their implementation has been primarily institutional. This study aimed to evaluate longitudinal trends in PT scores at a Peruvian medical school.
We conducted a longitudinal analysis using data from PTs administered annually between 2017 and 2024. The PT assessed students' knowledge based on the subjects completed at the time of testing. Scores ranged from 0 to 250 and were converted to a 20-point scale. Independent variables included number of PTs taken (1-7), year of entry into medical school (entry cohort; 2017-2024), year of test administration (2017-2024), and sex. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to assess score trends over time, applying an identity link function with a Gaussian distribution and robust standard errors clustered by student ID.
We included 1,899 test scores from 669 medical students. The mean score across all tests was 9.19 (standard deviation = 2.34). No consistent upward trend in PT scores was observed over the study period; scores decreased by 0.088 points per additional year (CI95% CI: -0.147 to -0.029, p = 0.003). Students who completed five PTs scored significantly higher than those who took four (β = 1.40; 95% CI: 0.79 to 2.01). When stratified by entry cohort, no sustained improvement in scores was observed within cohorts over time.
Over an eight-year period of administering a progress test at a Peruvian medical school, student performance remained stable, with an average of approximately 50% of questions answered correctly per test. Longitudinal analysis did not reveal a sustained increase in scores as students advanced through the curriculum. This pattern may be explained by the PT design, which assesses only the content covered by students at the time of each administration, in contrast to other PTs that measure end-of-curriculum knowledge across all cohorts. Nevertheless, an increase in median scores was observed during the transition from basic science to clinical subjects.
进阶测试是一种纵向评估方法，用于监测医学培训过程中知识的获取和保留情况。虽然进阶测试（PTs）已通过医学院校的合作网络在国际上广泛采用，但在秘鲁，其实施主要是在院校层面。本研究旨在评估秘鲁一所医学院校PT分数的纵向趋势。
我们使用了2017年至2024年每年进行的PTs数据进行纵向分析。PT根据测试时学生已完成的科目评估其知识。分数范围为0至250，并转换为20分制。自变量包括参加的PT次数（1 - 7次）、进入医学院的年份（入学队列；2017 - 2024年）、测试年份（2017 - 2024年）和性别。使用广义估计方程（GEE）评估分数随时间的趋势，应用具有高斯分布和按学生ID聚类的稳健标准误的恒等连接函数。
我们纳入了669名医学生的1899个测试分数。所有测试的平均分数为9.19（标准差 = 2.34）。在研究期间未观察到PT分数持续上升的趋势；每增加一年分数下降0.088分（95%置信区间：-0.147至-0.029，p = 0.003）。完成5次PT的学生得分显著高于参加4次的学生（β = 1.40；95%置信区间：0.79至2.01）。按入学队列分层时，各队列内随时间未观察到分数持续提高。
在秘鲁一所医学院校进行进阶测试的八年期间，学生成绩保持稳定，每次测试平均约50%的问题回答正确。纵向分析未发现随着学生课程推进分数持续增加。这种模式可能由PT的设计来解释，与其他衡量所有队列课程结束时知识的PT不同，该PT仅评估每次测试时学生所学的内容。然而，在从基础科学过渡到临床科目的过程中，中位数分数有所增加。
