Objective:

To explore associations between mentor characteristics and medical students’ theoretical examination performance within a structured undergraduate tutorial system (UTS).

Approach:

• Study Design: Retrospective cohort study involving 94 fourth-year medical students in UTS and 136 non-UTS students for comparison.
• Primary Outcomes: Final examination passing (≥60) and high achievement (≥80) in Internal Medicine and Surgery.
• Statistical Analysis: Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) used to account for clustering of students within mentors.

Key Findings:

• UTS students had higher mean theoretical scores than non-UTS students (71.1 ± 12.0 vs. 64.5 ± 9.4).
• Students performed better in Surgery than in Internal Medicine (passing rate: 86.2% vs. 71.3%, p < 0.001; high-achiever rate: 36.2% vs. 20.2%, p = 0.002).
• Having a mentor with a senior professional title was associated with higher odds of passing Internal Medicine (adjusted OR = 2.89, 95% CI: 1.05–7.96, p = 0.04).
• Younger mentor age was associated with high achievement in Internal Medicine (OR per year = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.85–0.99, p = 0.03).

Interpretation:

A senior mentor title was independently associated with passing the Internal Medicine examination; exploratory findings regarding mentor age require confirmation in larger studies.

Limitations:

• Study design was retrospective and non-randomized.
• Findings may not be generalizable beyond the specific context of the study.

Conclusion:

Course-specific differences in student performance were pronounced, indicating that the impact of formal mentorship on theoretical learning is context-dependent.