Retention of basic sciences knowledge at clinical years: a single institute study from Sudan

BACKGROUND: Retention of basic science knowledge is essential for effective clinical reasoning and decision-making in medical education. However, many students face difficulties applying this foundational knowledge during their clinical years. OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of retained basic science knowledge among undergraduate medical students. METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional-single institutional-based study was conducted among medical students of two different batches in the University of Kassala, Sudan, during the academic period spanning 2021 to 2022. Thirty-six single answer questions were used for data collection. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 25. RESULTS: Out of 185 invited students, 164 completed the exam questions yielding 88.65% response rate. Students' test scores ranged from 19.44% to 88.89%, with an overall average of 57.49 ± 14.60. Notably, 32 students (19.51%) scored ≤ 47%. The average scores between the two student batches were nearly identical (57.67% ± 14.82 and 57.32% ± 14.47), suggesting consistency in performance across batches. Analysis across subject areas revealed that integrated questions consistently produced the highest mean scores in both batches (64.66 ± 19.68 and 62.35 ± 21.07 respectively). Overall, integrated questions had the highest average score at 63.55 ± 20.39, followed by Physiology (60.37 ± 19.31) and Biochemistry (55.22 ± 16.49) while Anatomy recorded the lowest average score (50.81 ± 18.46). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that how well the undergraduate medical students gaining better retention of basic medical sciences knowledge when it is clinically oriented.