Second-year Keck students scored an average of 233 points on the test, compared to a national average of 218, Keck officials estimated from data USMLE gave them.
Eighty-five percent of second-year Keck students scored above the national mean, said Keck Dean Brian Henderson.
Carol Ciliberto, a representative of the National Board of Medical Examiners, which oversees USMLE, refused to confirm the Keck test scores or release the scores of any other school to the Daily Trojan. The board only sends the test scores to medical schools.
The USMLE is administered multiple times per year and is used as one criterion to determine national medical school rankings and residency programs. There are three steps to the test: Step one is administered in the second year of medical school, step two is taken by fourth-year students and step three is given to students during their residency programs.
Clive Taylor, the senior associate dean for educational affairs at Keck, said Keck's USMLE scores are higher than what the school's administration expected based on students' MCAT scores and GPAs.
Walavan Sivakumar, a third-year medical school student and president of the Keck class of 2009, said he has seen USC enroll more motivated students who score higher on MCAT tests and have better GPAs.
USC medical students have scored higher on the USMLE than students at the UC Irvine Medical School over the past two years, according to data provided by Tom Vasich, assistant director of communications at Irvine's medical school. In 2006, USC students topped Irvine's students' scores by five points.
Other California schools Keck competes with for students refused to provide the Daily Trojan with USMLE scores for comparison.
Keck students have improved their USMLE scores over the past five years, increasing them from an average score of 216 to 233, according to data provided by Keck officials.
Taylor attributed the score increase to curriculum changes at Keck. He said Keck students who were taught the new curriculum boosted the school's mean score to 220 points in 2003.
The new curriculum focuses more learning from case studies, gives students USMLE-type exams and gives students more opportunities to study course material.
Under the old curriculum, students spent 34 hours per week in the classroom. Students now spend only 24 hours of their week in the classroom and the other 10 studying in organized groups.
Students say the new curriculum prepares them better for tests such as USMLE.
"[The new curriculum] enhances the degree to which students understand medicine because it allows them to use their 10 extra hours improving areas of study," said third-year Keck student Rebecca Sadun, who took the test in 2004.
The most important addition to the curriculum has been the integration of more case-based learning. In the last six to eight weeks of the second year of medical school, students work in small groups with physicians on various cases and interact with patients at the Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center.
"A lot of schools don't see patients right away, [but Keck students] see patients during their classes," said Sahar Bedrood, a fifth-year M.D./Ph.D student.
Sivakumar agreed and said students are thinking more about clinical applications because of the new curriculum. While other schools have stuck to traditional teaching methods, USC has used integrated case studies to achieve higher scores.
"Basically we're getting practice on every exam for the step one," Bedrood said. "I think overall it's a supportive environment for studying for the exam."
But Henderson said scores are only "one parameter" in determining whether students would be good physicians.
Bedrood said he believes Keck's goal is not to prepare students to do well on the USMLE test but rather to make students better doctors.
"In the long term it comes down to who they are and how they can be a great doctor," Bedrood said.
The new curriculum focuses more learning from case studies, gives students USMLE-type exams and gives students more opportunities to study course material.
Under the old curriculum, students spent 34 hours per week in the classroom. Students now spend only 24 hours of their week in the classroom and the other 10 studying in organized groups.
Students say the new curriculum prepares them better for tests such as USMLE.
"[The new curriculum] enhances the degree to which students understand medicine because it allows them to use their 10 extra hours improving areas of study," said third-year Keck student Rebecca Sadun, who took the test in 2004.
The most important addition to the curriculum has been the integration of more case-based learning. In the last six to eight weeks of the second year of medical school, students work in small groups with physicians on various cases and interact with patients at the Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center.
"A lot of schools don't see patients right away, [but Keck students] see patients during their classes," said Sahar Bedrood, a fifth-year M.D./Ph.D student.
Sivakumar agreed and said students are thinking more about clinical applications because of the new curriculum. While other schools have stuck to traditional teaching methods, USC has used integrated case studies to achieve higher scores.
"Basically we're getting practice on every exam for the step one," Bedrood said. "I think overall it's a supportive environment for studying for the exam."
But Henderson said scores are only "one parameter" in determining whether students would be good physicians.
Bedrood said he believes Keck's goal is not to prepare students to do well on the USMLE test but rather to make students better doctors.
"In the long term it comes down to who they are and how they can be a great doctor," Bedrood said.
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