Do Dental Students Use Optimal Study Strategies?

Research on human learning has shown that repeated retrieval practice or self‐testing maximizes learning. However, recent studies have found undergraduate students to be largely unaware of the benefits of self‐testing. The aim of this study was to examine dental students’ study strategies and utilization of retrieval techniques for learning. All second‐year dental students at New York University College of Dentistry were invited to participate. Of the total 360 students, 66 completed the two‐question survey, for a response rate of 18.3%. The first question asked students to choose from a list of twelve study strategies the ones they used and to rank their top five in order of personal preference. Repeated reading was the most frequently used strategy with 83.3% of students reporting that they used it and 43.9% naming it as their top strategy. Of these students, 45.5% indicated that they self‐tested while studying, but none indicated it was their number one strategy. The second question asked students how they would study after reading a textbook chapter for the first time. They were asked to choose one option from three possibilities: going back and restudying, self‐testing (with the possibility of restudying afterward), or some other strategy. On this question, 25.8% chose restudying, 45.5% chose self‐testing, and 28.8% indicated they would use another study strategy. Thus, 54.6% of the students reported they would not test themselves after reading a textbook chapter. Of those who chose self‐testing, only seven students indicated they would do so to improve learning. The results of this study suggest that the students lacked sufficient awareness of the superiority of self‐testing for learning.