Medical students’ preferences towards learning resources and their study habits at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to explore why our medical students are avoiding the study of professional textbooks. We conducted this study from 10th March to 15th May 2017 at the King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, to investigate their preferences towards learning resources, their study habits and correlation of academic achievements as a result of these trends. A questionnaire was provided as a web link. The participants of the study included medical students and data was analyzed on SPSS-Version 21. RESULTS: A total of 347/500 medical students participated in the study. Among our participants, there were 123 (35.5%) males and 224 (64.6%) were females. Female students’ spent most of their time reading textbooks as compared to males (P-value = 0.001). Males mostly preferred the lecture handouts provided by their teachers. One-third of students admitted that, due to lack of a good grasp of English, they do not readily understand textbooks and consequently 67 (19.3%) students’ showed a lack of interest in textbooks. Majority of the males 103 (84%) spent twice a time (66 vs. 33%) watching television as compared to the females. WhatsApp and Facebook kept both the sexes busy in most of their spare time.