The Effect of Graded Assessment on Medical Student Performance in TBL Exercises

Graded assessments supplement student intrinsic motivation to acquire new knowledge but can be anxiety provoking. We assessed the effect of contribution of team-based learning exercises (TBLs) to course grades and found that individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) scores, a surrogate for individual student preparation, are lower and do not correlate with final examination scores when TBLs do not contribute to the course grade. iRAT scores were weakly correlated with final examination scores when TBLs contributed to the course grade. These data suggest that graded assessments provide extrinsic motivation for student preparation, which may improve the educational impact of this activity.