I've always thought that most students smart enough to get into medical school don't need to be sorted by intelligence or academic achievement. I think experience and diversity may be the better sorting criteria. For my 3rd year psychiatry clerkship I always start the sort first by asking students if they have had any experience in psychiatry or if they were psychology majors. I then sort by college major. I then ask the students to line up by location of birth. It's a fun way to both find out where students are from and create diverse groups with a mix of urban/rural/national/international mix. After the groups are arranged I take a look and make sure there is a gender distribution where there is at least one man and one woman in each team. If I see a gender homogenous team I will have them draw straws to choose a member to switch with another group. Ruth Levine MD University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Geiss, Roger Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 11:19 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Forming Teams in second year preclinical classes in Medical School We are embarking on using TBL in a number of our second-year preclinical courses, and I am interested in knowing the criteria used by others to form teams in such classes. Some criteria are fairly straightforward, while others are not. In particular, how does anyone "get at" previous academic achievement without embarrassing low-achieving students. I suppose one could "preselect" using their transcripts, but that would compromise transparency. In addition to using (or not using) academic achievement, what other criteria do any of you use? Thanks much. Roger Roger W. Geiss, M.D. Professor and Chair Department of Pathology University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria 1 Illini Drive, Box 1649 Peoria, IL 61656-1649 Phone: 309-671-8440 Fax: 309-671-8434 E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>