Academic excellence: A comprehensive investigation of medical students' study habits, strategies, and sources in medical colleges of Peshawar, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: It's no secret that medical students have access to a plethora of medical literature, which can make it challenging to determine the right sources and how to cover them effectively using various study habits and strategies. Our objective was to determine the association of study habits (time and location), study duration, study strategies, and study sources with academic performance.

METHODS

It was a cross-sectional study conducted in six Medical Colleges in Peshawar, Pakistan between 13 April 2023 to 13 Jun 2023. Total 138 students were selected for the study. A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Participants were from both genders and in both public and private sector medical colleges. First-year students and students from medical colleges outside of Peshawar were excluded from the study. SPSS (Version 20.0) was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

The study revealed that daily study hours (during normal days), residence status, library study, morning study timings, active recall, MCQS solving, and watching online videos made a significant association with academic performance (P < 0.05). Pearson's correlation showed a positive and statistically significant association between daily study hours (during normal days), study strategies, and academic performance (p < 0.05). The multiple regression model explained 30.5% of the variance in academic performance.

CONCLUSION

This study established a noteworthy link between academic performance and various factors, including daily study hours, strategies, and specific study sources. Notably, morning study sessions, active recall, MCQs-based strategies, and online video resources showed significant associations with enhanced academic performance.