The Effect of Medical School Students' Study Approaches on Academic Achievement

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between medical students' study approaches and sociodemographic characteristics with their academic achievement and to determine whether their study approaches differ between clinical and preclinical periods.Materials and Methods: The study is a descriptive-cross-sectional study. Medical students were asked to fill out the “Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ2F)” questionnaire.Results: The study included 298 male and 306 female students with a mean age of 21.40±2.58 years. 57.8% (n=349) of the students were preclinical medical students and 42.2% (n=255) were clinical students. No significant difference was found between the place of residence of the students and the reason for choosing the medical faculty (p=0.853, p=0.860, respectively). Deep study approach scores of preclinical students were found to be significantly higher than clinical students (p<0.014). It was determined that the deep strategic study scores of the preclinical students were significantly higher than the clinical students (p<0.001).Conclusion: Our study results show that deep learning behavior, which is one of the study approaches, is associated with higher academic achievement. The study results can help medical students to realize the effect of learning approaches they use on academic achievement early.