Peer tutoring helping students “ACE” medical school

Campbell Medicine began a peer tutoring program as part of the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) that provides academic counseling to assist students in identifying their learning styles, developing study skills, utilizing learning resources, and other assistance to support their academic success and personal wellness. 

Assistant Dean for Academic Success, Dr. Yen-Ping Kuo, describes the program and recognizes 20+ hour tutors, and a Tutor and Tutoree share their experience in the program.

Dr. Kuo
Peer tutoring is the most widely employed format of peer-assisted learning (PAL), and the effectiveness of peer tutors are well validated in clinical skills/procedural teaching context.   However, there is a need for the oversight of peer-tutoring programs to provide training, tutor evaluations, and track outcomes.

During the past two years, 26 active tutors provided a total of 495 hours of tutoring, and we have been very pleased with the tutoree satisfaction rate – about 70% – in several areas of evaluation including attitude, knowledge base, and ability to communicate. would like to recognize the students who provided over 20 hours of tutoring during the past two academic years:

*most tutoring hours for respective academic year

Tutoree
The tutoring program at Campbell has been one of the greatest blessings in my medical education. Having a peer and mentor I could turn to for help has been tremendously beneficial to my long-term education and learning.

The tutors I have been blessed to work with have helped me develop and enhance both my learning and test taking skills and strategies. This has promoted my ability to then take those skills and apply them into my studies so that I can then independently study in the most effective and efficient ways possible.

Learning to make connections between lectures and think more critically has directly and positively impacted both my exam grades and content knowledge for future board exams. Without the ACE center and tutoring program, I would not have the continued success that I have. I will be forever grateful to Campbell Medicine for providing this service and to my tutors who have helped me reach this point.

Tutor
Being a peer tutor for the ACE program has been fantastic. I had some experience tutoring before, however, it was more challenging to help with more difficult topics in medical school.

I really enjoyed being able to help my fellow classmates. It was always interesting how each session was different and how each person responded better to various teaching techniques. It helped me refine how to best communicate with diverse learning styles, especially different from my own.

Knowing I could help my classmates gain confidence in themselves and comfort with the material – it was a very rewarding experience for me. The ACE program is a greater resource, and I hope everyone knows there are plenty of students willing to help each other.