The relationship between study skills and academic performance of university students

AbstractObjective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between various study skills and academic performance of university students. Materials & Methods: A total of 179 male and female junior and senior medical and dental students participated in the present study. The instrument was “Study Skills Assessment Questionnaire” taken from counseling services of Houston University. The content validity of this questionnaire was approved by ten psychologist and faculty members of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected and analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The findings of the study showed that the study skills scores of university students with a grade point average (GPA) of 15 or more (out of 20), were statistically higher than that of those students with a GPA of less than 15 in all of the 7 skills of time management and procrastination (P<.01), concentration and memory (P<.01), study aids and note taking (P<.02), test strategies and test anxiety (P<.01), organizing and processing information (P<.01), motivation and attitude (P<.04), and reading and selecting the main idea (P<.0001). Conclusion: Teaching of study skills to university students can play an important role in the improvement of students’ academic performance