Students teaching students: a medical school peer tutorial programme.

A peer tutorial programme which is available to all first- and second-year medical students has been in operation at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine since 1972. A retrospective study of the classes of 1982, 1983 and 1984 was undertaken to assess the participation levels in the tutorial programme and to compare the participation level to available performance parameters. The analysis revealed that 54% of the first-year classes and 22% of the second-year classes participated in the peer tutorial programme. X2 analysis of the data demonstrated that the relationship between participation in the tutorial programme and performance on examinations reached statistical significance. The results suggested that an open peer tutorial programme responded to the needs, both cognitive and affective, of medical students.