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The Use of Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) to Investigate Differences Between Low vs High Academically Performing Medical Students

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Abstract

Objectives

This study examines differences in the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) 10-subscale scores between low and high academically performing medical students relative to internal and external examinations.

Methods

The LASSI instrument was administered to 180 medical students from three classes (2016, 2017, and 2018). To measure the strength of association between LASSI 10-subscale scores and performance on overall biomedical sciences and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1, Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were performed. One-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc analyses were performed to identify statistically significant differences on LASSI scores between students grouped by quartiles according to their performance on USMLE Step 1 examination (external performance measure) and by their average letter grade in the overall biomedical sciences (internal performance measure).

Results

Significant associations were observed between Anxiety, Motivation, and Test Strategies and students’ performance on both overall biomedical sciences and USMLE Step 1 examinations. Anxiety, Motivation, and Test Strategies were different between “A” and “C” students in the overall biomedical sciences. Anxiety, Information Processing, Motivation, Selecting Main Idea, and Test Strategies were significantly different between the upper and lower quartiles in USMLE Step 1 student performance.

Conclusions

Anxiety, Motivation and Test Strategies are the main LASSI subscales that were significantly different between high-performing and low-performing students for internal and external examinations. Interestingly, the same LASSI subscales Anxiety, Motivation, and Test Strategies were correlated with students’ performance in internal and external examinations.

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Funding

No funding was received for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, South Carolina, 607 Grove Road, Greenville, SC, 29605, USA

    Mohammed K. Khalil & Shanna E. Williams

  2. Piedmont Technical College, Greenwood, SC, 29646, USA

    H. Gregory Hawkins

Authors
  1. Mohammed K. Khalil
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  2. Shanna E. Williams
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  3. H. Gregory Hawkins
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Correspondence to Mohammed K. Khalil.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by University of South Carolina Institutional Review Board.

Informed Consent

NA, only retrospective data were analyzed.

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Khalil, M.K., Williams, S.E. & Hawkins, H.G. The Use of Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) to Investigate Differences Between Low vs High Academically Performing Medical Students. Med.Sci.Educ. 30, 287–292 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00897-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00897-w

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