Do medical student stress, health, or quality of life foretell step 1 scores? A comparison of students in traditional and revised preclinical curricula.

Theory: We explored the theory that measures of medical students' well-being and stress from different types of preclinical curricula are linked with performance on standardized assessment.

Hypotheses: Self-reported stress and quality of life among sophomore medical students having different types of preclinical curricula will vary in their relationships to USMLE Step 1 scores.

Method: Voluntary surveys in 2010 and 2011 compared self-reported stress, physical and mental health, and quality of life with Step 1 scores for beginning sophomore students in the final year of a traditional, discipline-based curriculum and the 1st year of a revised, systems-based curriculum with changed grading system.