Presented By: Zachary Leavitt, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Purpose 
Medical school is rigorous, even for the brightest students. Despite the selective nature of medical school admissions, students are forced to remediate each year. If grit is correlated to success in medical school, it could be combined with other criteria to aid admissions and education processes.

Methods
Data was collected using a validated 12-item questionnaire to assess grit. The voluntary grit questionnaire was sent to all active students at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine (n=250). Grit scores (scale 1 - 5) were stratified by students with mean grit scores ? 4 (high grit; n=10) versus those below 4 (n=20) and correlated with metrics using a two-sided T-test to evaluate statistical significance.

Results 
The response rate to the grit survey was 30%. There was a negative correlation (-0.460; p = 0.011; n=30), between grit scores and stress levels during pre-clinical years. High grit students (n=10) had significantly less stress compared to students with lower (n=20) grit scores (p=0.012). A positive correlation (0.401; p=0.028; n=30) was identified between grit scores and pre-clinical biomedical exam scores. High grit students significantly outperformed lower grit students on pre-clinical exams (p=0.005).

Conclusion 
Students with high grit scored significantly higher on pre-clinical exams compared to their colleagues with lower grit. In addition, the high-grit students had significantly less stress during this phase of the curriculum. Our results suggest that grit could be a predictor of performance and perceived stress in medical students and could help identify at-risk students. Our future goal is to conduct a longitudinal study to determine if grit changes during medical school and whether it could predict performance on USMLE exams and other important medical school milestones.