Pharmacology national board examinations: factors that may influence performance

Data from a survey of pharmacology courses in 60 dental schools were used to determine whether certain teaching variables affect performance in pharmacology National Board examinations. In addition, three-year class-averaged pharmacology scores and, rarely, one-year averaged scores were correlated with several admissions variables. While correlations between some admissions variables and pharmacology scores were quite good, the averaged pharmacology scores were not powerfully affected by course length, placement of the course in the curriculum, length of the curriculum, or the presence of a dentally trained pharmacologist in the department. It is suggested that other factors, related to the student and his capabilities, influence performance on National Boards. Dental pharmacology courses should be designed to given students the best possible exposure to an important basic science, not to make them perform well on National Boards, because student performance on National Boards may be independent of the nature of the didactic courses.