Learning approaches and academic performance of undergraduate medical students in Pakistan

To classify undergraduate medical students according to their learning approaches and to correlate the learning approaches with their academic achievements.

A questionnaire to appraise learning approaches of undergraduate medical students was administered and collected at the end of the regular certifying examinations. The responses were analysed through the principal component factor analysis.

The results did not depict formation of demonstrable learning approaches during academic years. However, increased self-awareness about the approaches was indicated by the responses of final year students as compared to the third year students. The correlation of the learning approaches with the scores of the certifying examination and a mock test (consisting of specially developed integrated questions), through multivariate analysis depicted statistically insignificant results.

There was a non-significant relationship between the learning approaches and academic performances and a weak statistical significance between achievement, orientation and performance in certifying examination. It is essential that along with changes in the instructional and assessment strategies awareness should be created in students about various learning approaches.