Time management behaviors as potential explanatory factors in dental academic achievement

DAT scores and predental GPAs have made the greatest but an imperfect contribution to the reliable estimation of dental students' academic success. One variable unaddressed yet having potential in accounting for unexplained variability in dental school performance is time management behaviors (TMB), a multidimensional attribute that is critical to success in a dental curriculum. Research has indicated a relationship of TMB dimensions (Setting Goals and Priorities, Mechanics of Time Management, Preference for Organization) with undergraduate academic achievement. The purposes of this study were: 1) to ascertain the levels of TMB dimensions reflected in predental students; 2) to validate in predental students the relationship of TMB dimensions and undergraduate academic achievement; and 3) to explore the relationship of TMB dimensions of predental students as explanatory variables of their early academic achievement in the dental curriculum. All individuals who were applicants interviewed for the 1997 entering D.D.S. class and the majority of members of the 1996 entering D.D.S. class participated in this study (n = 192). Each completed the TMB scale. High levels of TMB across dimensions were observed in predental and dental students. Unlike prior research, results showed virtually no relationship of TMB dimensions with undergraduate GPA of these subjects. Though a small relationship was found between dimensions and first-year dental GPAs, no dimension explained a significant amount of variance in any of these dental GPAs beyond that of undergraduate science GPA.