Structured didactic teaching sessions improve medical student neurology clerkship test scores: a pilot study.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of didactic case-based instruction methodology to improve medical student comprehension of common neurological illnesses and neurological emergencies.

Methods: Neurology department, academic university. Methods: 415 third and fourth year medical students performing a required four week neurology clerkship. Methods: Raw test scores on a 1 hour, 50-item clinical vignette based examination and open-ended questions in a post-clerkship feedback session.

Results: There was a statistically significant improvement in overall test scores (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Didactic teaching sessions have a significant positive impact on neurology student clerkship test score performance and perception of their educational experience. Confirmation of these results across multiple specialties in a multi-center trial is warranted.