Assessing Student Preparedness for the first Medical Physiology Exam: Student Self-Reflections

Background/Objective: Encouraging students to have a growth mindset refers to their own development of beliefs that their skills and abilities can improve, can persist through difficulties, can learn from mistakes, can use effective strategies for success, and can ask for help. Adopting a growth mindset tends to enable students to stick with things for longer periods, achieve better results, and hopefully enjoy the learning experience more than when they believed they had fixed potential. A student’s belief about their potential can impact their academic trajectory. Students with adaptive learning mindsets tend to be more motivated and more likely to persist if setbacks arise. We utilized an exam wrapper (a reflection activity) to reinforce growth mindset concepts with first year medical students. The goal of the study was to help students assess their learning approaches for the first medical physiology exam and to allow them to identify what they may do differently to better prepare for the next exam. Methods: This study utilized an anonymous online survey of 5 questions assessing osteopathic and podiatric medical student studying habits and preparation for their first physiology exam (Midwestern University IRB, IRBAZ-5276 approved 30 Nov 2023). Question format included select one of the following, or select all answers that apply to you, with opportunities for free responses. The survey was sent out via email to 295 first year medical students from Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine (AZCOM) and Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine (AZPOD) enrolled during the 2023-2024 academic year. Of the 295 students surveyed, 51 completed the survey, with a response rate of 17.3%. Results: We found that most students shared that they spent either three or more days studying (76.5%) and far less students either studied each day after lecture (15.7%), or spent two or less days (11.8%) in preparation for the exam. Student study preparations for the exam varied: 90.2% read through posted PowerPoints, (66.7%) listened to recordings and/or completed practice problems. Somewhat less students identified that they draw/map out concepts (52.9%) or studied with a partner/group (47.1%). A handful of students reported using flashcards as an additional study method. When asked about how they may have lost points on the exam (after receiving their grade and/or attending the post exam review), students indicated the following: 41.2% changed their answers/lack of confidence in their knowledge, 41.2% did not get chance to study some concepts, 17.6% reflected a lack of understanding of the material. Of note, 47.1% shared free responses that varied from: getting tripped up on wording, misread what the questions were asking me, timing, missed one question but understood the content well, N/A got 100% on the exam. Additionally, we asked the students what is one thing that you are considering changing for the next exam, and free responses included: don’t change answers, focus more on the big picture, another pass-through of material, map lectures, more attention to detail, stay more caught up on material, more group studying, nothing, and go to office hours. Conclusion/Significance: By answering the exam wrapper survey, and participating in this reflection activity, the student learners may develop better study tools to improve their study/preparation for upcoming exams. We appreciate that we did not track the students during the course and performance over several exams, thus we cannot interpret the results of the study from an exam performance perspective. Regardless, affording student reflection is important and may have benefitted their own learning experiences. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.