How do medical students learn conceptual knowledge? High-, moderate- and low-utility learning techniques and perceived learning difficulties

BACKGROUND: Acquiring medical knowledge is a key competency for medical students and a lifelong requirement for physicians. Learning techniques can improve academic success and help students cope with stressors. To support students’ learning process medical faculties should know about learning techniques. The purpose of this study is to analyse the preferred learning techniques of female and male as well as junior and senior medical students and how these learning techniques are related to perceived learning difficulties. METHODS: In 2019, we conducted an online survey with students of the undergraduate, competency-based curriculum of medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. We chose ten learning techniques of high, moderate and low utility according to Dunlosky et al. (2013) and we asked medical students to rate their preferred usage of those techniques using a 5-point Likert scale. We applied t-tests to show differences in usage between female and male as well as junior and senior learners. Additionally, we conducted a multiple regression analysis to explore the predictive power of learning techniques regarding perceived difficulties. RESULTS: A total of 730 medical students (488 women, 242 men, M(age) = 24.85, SD = 4.49) use three techniques the most: ‘highlighting’ (low utility), ‘self-explanation’ (moderate utility) and ‘practice testing’ (high utility). Female students showed a significantly higher usage of low-utility learning techniques (t(404.24) = -7.13, p < .001) and a higher usage of high-utility learning techniques (t(728) = -2.50, p < .05) than male students (M = 3.55, SD = .95). Compared to junior students (second to sixth semester; M = 3.65, SD = .71), senior students (seventh semester to final clerkship year; M = 3.52, SD = .73) showed a lower use of low-utility learning techniques (t(603) = 2.15, p < .05). Usage of low-utility techniques is related to more difficulties (β = .08, t(724) = 2.13, p < .05). Usage of moderate-utility techniques is related to less learning difficulties (β = -.13, t(599) = -3.21, p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Students use a wide range of low-, moderate- and high-utility learning techniques. The use of learning techniques has an influence on the difficulties perceived by students. Therefore, they could benefit from knowing about and using high-utility learning techniques to facilitate their learning. Faculties should inform their students about effective learning and introduce them to useful learning techniques. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03283-0.