Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s40670-026-02893-3

Publication Title

Medical Science Educator

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

11 pp.

Abstract

This retrospective study examines the relationship between performance on pre-clerkship exam metrics and interrupted academic progress (IAP) within the context of a pass/fail grading system and pass/fail Step 1 scoring. For this study, IAP refers to a disruption in the expected transition from the pre-clerkship phase to clinical clerkships, characterized by failure to meet Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE) and/or Step 1 milestones on schedule or a delay in starting clinical clerkships. Data from cohorts matriculating between 2019 and 2021 were analyzed using exam z-scores, quartile rankings, cumulative averages, cumulative deviation scores, and exam failure counts. Results indicated that students experiencing IAP had lower cumulative z-scores (≤ -1.00), more frequent bottom quartile placements, cumulative exam averages below 81%, three or more exam failures, and/or cumulative deviation scores two standard deviations below cohort means. Logistic regression confirmed these metrics as significant predictors of IAP. These findings suggest that in a pass/fail context, exam metrics remain valuable in identifying students at-risk for IAP.

Rights

© The Authors 2026

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder

Data Availability

Article states: "The data used in this study will not be made publicly available. However, inquiries related to the data may be directed to the first author."

Original Publication Citation

Rogers-Johnson, M., Whitfield, T., & Ethirajan, M. (2026). Examining the relationship between performance on pre-clerkship exam metrics and interrupted academic progress. Medical Science Educator. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-026-02893-3

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