Previous Experience and Parental Perspectives: Influences on Study Habits in Anatomy

Background There are many influences on how medical students study. This project evaluates student study plans at the beginning of Gross Anatomy and their self‐reported study habits at the end of the course. It is hoped that this information will enable medical faculty and advisors to better identify students who may be at‐risk in the course and better advise them on appropriate study habits. Methods During 2015–2016, first year medical students were given a survey at the beginning of their Gross Anatomy course to record how they planned to study. At the end of the course, they were given the same survey again to report how they actually studied for Gross Anatomy. The survey included a total of thirty‐seven questions. These questions incorporated Likert scale questions about their study habits and basic demographic information including parental education level and whether or not each parent was a physician. Students were also asked about their previous anatomy experience. T‐tests were run between those that had previous anatomy courses and those without, across grade and study habit data. T‐tests were also run across these variables between those whose parents were physicians or had advanced degrees and those whose parents did not. Results One hundred and twenty‐seven students (36.2%) completed the pre‐course survey and one hundred and six students (30.4%) completed the post‐course survey. While there were no significant differences in the pre‐course surveys between those with and without a previous anatomy course, the post‐course surveys found that students who had a previous anatomy course were more likely than other students to make their own drawings (p=.042) and to make their own flashcards (p=.019). There were no significant differences in post‐course surveys between students with or without a physician parent, but pre‐course surveys showed that students with physician parents were more likely than those without to plan to look up information on websites (p= .019) and to see the value in the lab (p=.045/p=.032). There were also no significant differences between students with or without parents who had advanced degrees, but post‐course surveys found students of parents with advanced degrees generally expected a lower final grade (p=.040) and were less likely to make their own flashcards (p=.009) than other students. Ironically, students of parents with advanced degrees actually had significantly higher final grades (p=.035) than other students. Given these relationships with making flashcards, a chi‐square test was run between previous anatomy courses and parental education. Results found a significant relationship between these two variables (p=.049). Conclusions Students with previous anatomy courses are more likely than students without this experience to adopt active learning techniques as they integrate their new, likely more detailed, knowledge with their previous understandings. Students with at least one parent who is a physician bring different expectations into the classroom than other students, particularly a healthy respect for the value of lab. This may be a result of lab stories from physician parents. More generally, students of parents who have an advanced degree are more likely to have higher grades in anatomy, despite having lower grade expectations than other students. These results may relate to parental warnings about the rigors of graduate coursework. This “insider knowledge” may help to prepare the student for the challenges ahead.