Planning student work-study time in an objectives-based medical curriculum

By developing, validating, and using a formula for predicting students' time commitment to their studies, those responsible for developing curricula can make their planning more precise. Overloads and underloads can be identified a priori, competition between concurrent courses can be reduced, and changes in course content and structure can be based on empirical data. The formula should be useful at all undergraduate levels and with a variety of educational formats.