Study Habits During Exam Preparation and Social Factors That Set High-Achieving Medical Students Apart in Syria

Medical students face a vast amount of information to learn and apply in clinical practice. Thus, they need effective strategies to manage and retain this knowledge. We aim to examine the study behaviors and social factors that distinguish high-achieving medical students.

A cross-sectional design was used to investigate the study habits during the exam preparation period and social factors of 598 medical student from Damascus University, during the year 2022, focusing on differences between high-achieving and non-high-achieving students. Data were collected using a self-administered paper-based questionnaire randomly distributed across multiple classes. Logistic regression was employed to examine the factors differentiating high-achieving from non-high-achieving students.

Financial status, employment, parents' educational level, study duration during the exam preparation period, sleep duration during the exam period, and some other factors had no relationship with being a high-achieving student. While other factors were positively associated, including having a doctor in the family (OR = 1.583, 95% CI: 1.000, 2.505, P = .05) and "often" (OR = 2.860, 95% CI: 1.571, 5.204, P = .001), "usually" (OR = 2.012, 95% CI: 1.004, 4.032, P = .049), or "always" (OR = 2.554, 95% CI: 1.295, 5.039, P = .007) using faculty textbooks compared to "never/rarely." Conversely, a negative relationship was found between being a high-achieving student and "usually" using lecture handouts (OR = 0.201, 95% CI: 0.044, 0.913, P = .038) compared to "never/rarely."

We found no significant differences in study habits during exam preparation period between high-achieving and non-high-achieving students. Other factors may contribute to the success of high-achieving medical students.