Table 3.

Medical students' mean scores on a 30-item test of knowledge of communication skills

School:	Early/PBL A	Early/PBL B	Integrated	Traditional
Year 1	81.2	81.0	74.5	69.3
Year 2	82.4	78.8	76.0	71.8
Year 3	82.7	80.9	79.2	76.6**
Year 4	79.3	79.3	80.3	77.0
Year 5	83.7*	81.7*	82.1	78.2
Year 6	85.7	83.4	81.0	80.5
Increase from years 1 to 6	4.5	2.4	6.5§	11.2§

Two schools provide early patient contact and a PBL-based curriculum (Early/PBL A and Early/PBL B), one school follows an integrated curriculum (Integrated) and the fourth follows a traditional curriculum (Traditional). Differences between schools were significant for all 6 years (P ≤ 0.001).

* Schools Early/PBL A and Early/PBL B, year 5 vs. year 4, P ≤ 0.05, independent t-test

**Traditional school, year 3 vs. year 2; P ≤ 0.01, independent t-test

§P ≤ 0.001, ANOVA