Study of Efficacy of a Novel Formative Assessment Tool: Keywords Recall

Background Formative assessment is a crucial component of a Competency-Based Medical Education curriculum. Keywords are concise representations of the central ideas and themes explored within a subject. Taking a memory test evaluates knowledge as well as improves future memory. Aim and objectives This study intended to study the efficacy of the "keywords teaching" technique and "keywords recall" after a teaching-learning session as an effective tool for formative assessment and the correlation between the performance of students in summative assessments. Materials and methods Students of first-year professional faculty of medicine students 2022-23 batch attending pre-clinical (physiology) classroom lectures aged between 18-21 years belonging to both genders who consented to voluntary participation in the study were included in the study. Scores of formative sessions by multiple choice questions, keywords recall assessment tool, and summative sessions were analyzed using paired t-tests. Scores of formative assessments and summative assessments were correlated using Pearson correlation analysis. Results Analysis showed formative assessments had a significant (<i>P</i> < 0.05) relationship with summative assessment performance. The study indicates a positive correlation between scores for both formative and summative assessments, highlighting the importance of formative assessment in improved academic performance. Conclusion Optimal learning can be achieved by testing that emphasizes recall retrieval practice and that is repeated at intervals over time. This study suggests that "keywords recall" after a teaching-learning session is an effective tool for formative assessment.