Objectives: To establish an aggressive problem-based learning (PBL) format for the medicinal chemistry course and assess the outcomes of student learning.
Methods: To assess learning in the new format, precourse and postcourse examinations were given to students enrolled before and after problem-based learning was implemented, and appropriate statistical analyses were conducted.
Results: The PBL cohort did not learn the same amount of factual content yet performed the same on higher-order thought questions as the non-PBL cohort.
Conclusions: Problem-based learning may not be the ideal method for teaching medicinal chemistry. This may be due to several factors including: student learning type, the lack of a cognitive framework for learning in the basic sciences, and time constraints.