To adapt the requirement of Chinese education development

and to abandon the defects of two semester system

such as too-long semester

inflexible curriculum

and restricting personality development of students

Xi'an Jiaotong University performed semester reform for reforming the contents and methods of the teaching

promoting the innovation ability of students

and improving the quality of the scholastic education since 2013. In the current study

we have attempted to demonstrate the benefits of the semester reform for promoting the innovation ability of students

and to reveal the active role of the semester reform through comparing the presentation of medical undergraduate students in the national competition of innovation training for medical undergraduate students. Overall

the results of our analysis have supported the semester reform

and provided the reference information for the semester reforms of Chinese universities.