Relationship between Studying and Learning Strategies and Academic Performances in Medical Sciences Students

Aims: Survey in learning strategies and its relation with academic achievement will result in movement toward optimal learning. The purpose of this survey was to assess the relation between learning strategies and academic performance in students of Babol University of Medical Sciences. Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive-analytical correlation study that was performed in Babol University of Medical Sciences in 2013-14 academic year, 199 students of Medicine, Density, and Paramedicine (90 male and 109 female) was selected with stratified sampling method. Data was gathered with standard studying and learning strategies questionnaire (LASS) and the students' grade point averages (GPA) and were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, independent T and ANOVA tests using SPSS 18 software. Findings: The mean of all of the subscales including passion, skill and self-regulation were significantly higher in female than male (p<0.05). All of the subscales of learning strategies had significant positive relationship with academic achievement, except skills and processing information. The strongest positive predictors of academic achievement were main idea (B=0.343), processing information (B=0.288) and test-strategies (B=0.229). Also, GPA predicted 24.7% of total variance of academic achievement. Students with high-achievement had higher means than low-achievement in all 10 sub-scales of learning strategies, except processing information (p