Medical Student Study Habits

Traditional University Pedagogy Conquers All

The much coveted seats in Canada’s medical and veterinary schools are fiercely competed for. The fortunate individuals who gain the opportunity to study medicine are considered to be exemplary students. The mastery of the intricacies of human anatomy and physiology must be accommodated within the first two years of study in addition to the acquisition of myriad clinical skills.

In order to ascertain if this sub-population of super students differ from the general student population by their fundamental study habits a cumulative record of hours of study was prepared (see figure 1). The sample is the first and second year class of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s East Campus. It was assumed that these students comprised a single entity and their hours of study were integrated by the day and tabulated by after hours and weekend laboratory study time only. Students spend significantly more time in the lab a day before a bell ringer than they did the day after [t(7) = 3.07; p<0.05].


Figure 1. Cumulative record of hours of study for students of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (East Campus). Triangles indicate the dates of bell-ringer exams.

Given the typical behavioural pattern elicited by a fixed interval reinforcement schedule of cramming followed by a post-reinforcement pause perhaps the superiority of medical students is not a simply function of good study habits (take that mom!).