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Influence of study approaches on academic outcomes during pre-clinical medical education

Background: Different approaches to study lead to differing academic outcomes. Deep and strategic approaches have been linked to academic success while surface approaches lead to poorer understandings. Aims: This study sought to characterize how the approaches to study used by medical students impacted their academic success as measured by three outcomes: cumulative grades at the end of the first year, cumulative grades at the end of the second year, and performance on a medical licensing examination. Methods: The approaches and study skills inventory for students was administered to medical students to determine their predominant study approach (deep, strategic, superficial) at the beginning of their first year, end of first year, and end of second year. Each group's mean performance on each outcome measure was compared by ANOVA to find significant differences. Results: For all three outcome measures, strategic approaches to study were associated with high performance while surface approaches with a poor one. Deep approaches were most popular at all times and were largely associated with adequate performance. Conclusions: Deep approaches to study are sufficient for success in the current paradigm of medical education but strategic ones may offer a selective advantage to those who use them. Surface approaches to study must be discouraged by instructors through deliberate course design.