(114) An assessment of incoming pharmacy students reveals math deficiencies

Objective : Describe the mathematical abilities and deficiencies of incoming pharmacy students over a four year period at two U.S. pharmacy schools.

Methods: A baseline mathematics assessment (BMA) was created and administered to first-year students during orientation at two public, four-year, pharmacy schools. The assessment included 43 questions which needed to be solved using basic math skills such as percentages and proportions, fractions and decimals, rounding, and conversions. The questions were designed to utilize the skills needed for pharmacy calculations but did not require the use of pharmacy specific terminology or knowledge. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize performance based on question category. Overall performance and performance by category were analyzed using t-tests.

Results: The BMA was completed by 922 students during the four-year study period. The mean score was 73.8% (range: 26.6% - 99.2%). Students performed best in categories of rounding (88.9%), fractions and decimals (86.8%), and proportions (85.8%). The categories with the lowest performance were conversions (29.7%), percentages (67.9%), and questions that included more than one skill (68%).

Conclusions: The baseline math assessment revealed a range of math proficiency among incoming pharmacy students. These findings are consistent with the latest reports of NAPLEX performance which show 30% of students are below proficiency in Domain 4 which relates to performing calculations.
Using a baseline math assessment can help students and faculty identify areas where focused review and practice are needed to build math proficiency.