Co-construction of a student-teacher tutoring program improves the performance of medical students in the first French national OSCE exam

Background: In France, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was recently established as a mandatory evaluation for final-year medical students, with the first national OSCE conducted in 2024. Due to high costs, formative OSCEs are limited, prompting demand for more training. Few studies explore tutoring programs combining formative OSCE stations and station design, especially those jointly led by peers and teachers. We developed and evaluated the impact of a non-mandatory, student-teacher co-constructed tutoring program “Perform’OSCE” to prepare students for the national OSCE. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted from October 2023 to May 2024 at the Medical Faculty of Montpellier-Nîmes to evaluate the impact of participation in Perform’OSCE on students' performance in the national OSCE. Final-year students participated in OSCE training stations and peer-led OSCE design study groups. Online questionnaires collected data on baseline characteristics, satisfaction and anxiety. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied, adjusting for confounding variables such as age, academic background, and prior tutoring experience. Results: Of the 238 students who participated in the national OSCE, 167 (70%) completed at least one OSCE training station and joined an OSCE design study group. This participation in Perform’OSCE was significantly associated with higher national OSCE scores (β=0.57, 95% CI [0.175,0.97], p=0.005). Increased engagement in OSCE training stations correlated with improved exam performance (R = 0.42, p < 0.05). Satisfaction levels were elevated: 4.73/5 (SD 0.56) among students and 4.65/5 (SD 0.48) among teachers with no significant change in student anxiety over the year. Conclusion: The Perform’OSCE tutoring program was associated with improved national OSCE performance among final-year medical students, highlighting the effectiveness of structured, formative OSCE training for high-stakes assessments. Given the high participation rates and positive feedback, this program supports the value of a collaborative, student-teacher approach in medical education. Further research is needed to evaluate the broader impact of Perform’OSCE on academic and professional outcomes, and its potential for implementation across other institutions.