Academic performance among first year medical students at the School of Medicine, UNAM

[corrected] The academic skills of medical students during their first year (class of 2004) were analyzed. Subjects included gross anatomy, cellular biology, developmental biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, public health I and medical psychology. Results showed that students attending morning classes achieved a higher score than those attending afternoon classes. This fact was even more evident in the hardest subjects such as gross anatomy, biochemistry and molecular biology. It was also noticeable that students' achievement depended on the type of high school they had attended (public or private). The percentage of passing grades for each subject was calculated dividing the percentage of continuous assessment exams' passing grades by the percentage of passing grades given by the professor. Results showed that the index was close to I in some subjects such as medical psychology and public health, whilst in others such as gross anatomy and cellular biology the range fluctuated from 0.5 to 0.7. We conclude that the passing percentage is lower if it is tested through continuous assessment exams compared with professor's performance appraisals.