1 A moderate-structure cell biology course improves student performance but fails to alleviate destructive friction of a final comprehensive exam Authors IJsbrand Kramer* a , Frédérique Pellerin b and Xavier Nogues c a) University of Bordeaux, UF Biologie, IECB – INSERM U1026, 2 rue Robert Escarpit, F- 33607, Pessac Cedex, France b) BioStatistician Consultant, 96 Rue Camille Pelletan, 33400 Talence, France (fs.pellerin@orange.fr) c) University of Bordeaux, UF Biologie, Avenue des Facultés, F-33405, Talence Cedex, France (xavier.nogues@u-bordeaux.fr) IJsbrand Kramer created the course formats and associated learning documents and taught the Cell Biology courses, Xavier Nogues and Frédérique Pellerin performed the statistical analyses. *Corresponding author. ijsbrandkramer@gmail.com Running title: moderate-structure course format and student achievement Work telephone: 0033 (0)5 4000 8726 mobile: 0033 (0)6 2131 8220