Objective To explore the application of standardized patients (SP) in practice course of diagnostics.Methods The two classes of 135 students majoring in clinical medicine were selected as research.After the practical course in inquiry,the questionnaires were used to compare the teaching effect between the traditional teaching and SP teaching.Meanwhile,the students evaluated and gave feedback on SP work.Results The questionnaires on teaching effect showed that 127 (94.8％) students believed that the SP teaching method could stimulate interest in inquiry,125 students (93.3％) thought it could increase the understanding and memory of the inquiry content.127 students (94.8％) thought it could improve the application ability of the inquiry method,128 students (95.5％) thought it could improve inquiry techniques,129 students (96.3％) thought it could enhance expression ability,89 students (66.4％) thought it could enhance cooperation with their classmates,117 students (87.3％) thought it could enhance the confidence in communication,115 students (85.8％) thought it could improve their ability in independent thinking and self-study,126 students (94.0％) thought it could improve the learning effect,117 (87.3％) students thought it could develop their clinical thinking ability,116 students (86.6％) thought it could improve the satisfaction to teaching form,111 students (82.8％) thought it could develop the ability to answer patients' problems in a manner which is easy for patients to understand,and 126 (94.0％) students thought it could improve the ability to interact with patients.All issues were significantly better than the traditional teaching method Compared with the traditional teaching method,the students' choices on various items have statistically significant differences (P＜0.05).Conclusion Applying SP teaching to the practice courses of diagnostics is helpful to improve the teaching effect and cultivate students' clinical thinking ability.Thus,it is a promising teaching method in medical undergraduate education and worthy of further discussion and popularization.