The Patient-Oriented Problem-Solving (POPS) System in Pharmacology consists of a series of exercises that contain simulations of clinical problems.
Each exercise is designed for a group of four students, although adaptations can be made for different group sizes. Each exercise includes a pretest and a posttest, thus providing a mechanism for measuring learner achievement. Both the pretest and the posttest are designed to be completed by the students individually. Each of the four parts contains answers to a subset of the pretest questions and information about one episode in the clinical problem. Thus, the students must exchange information and work together to arrive at the solutions.