Performance of medical students is reflection of gender and learning style

Objective: To determine learning styles of students of 3rd year MBBS with special focus on gender and it correlation with the performance in examinations. Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted at Islamic International Medical College and VARK questionnaire was used assess the performance in exams. The obtained marks of students were divided into three groups: Group I=50-60%, Group II=60-70% and Group III=70-80%. All data was analyzed by SPSS v.21. Results: Out of 100 students, 83.5% students had uni modal while 16.5 % had multimodal learning style. Among unimodal style, auditory and kinesthetic (29.7% each) were the common learning styles. Among girls, 35% had preference for kinesthetic and auditory style while visual style was least common (3%). The kinesthetic and visual students were found to be high achievers in class. The listeners were found to be mediocre. The readers did not show good performance. Conclusion: Performance of medical students is related to the learning style and gender.