the available evidence suggests that a sizable proportion of undergraduate health sciences students lack good study skills and habits , and that introducing a study skills program could significantly improve students confidence and academic achievement .
the undergraduate pharmacy degree programs of the university of zambia comprise a regular five - year bachelor of pharmacy ( b. pharm . )
degree that primarily admits young high school graduates who have little or no clinical experience , and a parallel program that mostly enrols mature students with a diploma in pharmacy and clinical experience , or similar qualifications .
candidates with diploma in pharmacy or first degree qualifications in relevant fields could be admitted to advanced standing in the b. pharm programs . in light of the different student demographics and differences in academic achievement that have been observed between these two programs ,
this study was designed to analyse the study skills of undergraduate pharmacy students of the school of medicine of the university of zambia , with the goal of identifying areas of deficiency in the domains of time management , note taking , test / examination preparation , motivation , concentration / memory , information processing , reading , and writing skills .
the results of this study may help in the design of tailor - made study skills intervention courses to assist individual students .
the study population consisted of undergraduate bachelor of pharmacy students in years 3 , 4 , and 5 of both the regular and parallel programs of the school of medicine , university of zambia , lusaka , zambia .
since the parallel program has no year 1 and year 2 students , these levels were omitted from the study .
a sample size of 66 was calculated according to yamane formulae based on a total student enrolment of 243 in both programs for the years studied .
a demographic questionnaire was used to gather demographic information , while hard copies of the study skills assessment questionnaire ( ssaq ) developed by houston university counselling services was used to collect data on study skills from the eligible students using a simple random sampling technique .
the ssaq instrument contains 64 items grouped into the following eight domains : time management / procrastination ; concentration / memory ; study aids / note taking ; test strategies / test anxiety ; organizing / processing information ; motivation / attitude ; reading / selecting the main idea ; and writing .
this instrument uses a four - point likert scale (  always ,   usually ,   sometimes ,  and  never  ) to gather respondents views .
participants responses were rated as follows : 4 , always ; 3 , usually ; 2 , sometimes ; and 1 , never . thus , each domain has a maximum of 32 points and a minimum of 8 points .
participants study skills were rated using the following rubric : 1 ) poor study skills_less than 50% in each domain ( < 16 points ) or less than 128 points overall ; 2 ) moderate study skills_50%-75% in each domain ( 16 - 24 points ) or 128 - 192 points overall ; and 3 ) good study skills_more than 75% in each domain ( > 24 points ) or more than 192 points overall .
each consenting student was allowed sufficient time to independently complete the questionnaire and to return it at his / her convenience .
the completed and returned questionnaires were scored as described above , and results were analysed using spss version 21 ( ibm corp . , armonk
the mean scores were compared using the student s t - test ; p - values < 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance .
the reliability of the ssaq among these participants was determined by calculating cronbach s alpha coefficient for internal consistency . ethical approval for this study
was obtained from the university of zambia school of medicine research ethics committee ( unzasomrec ref # : irb00001131 of ior g0000774 ) .
the ssaq results showed that overall , the study skills of the participants were moderate , with a total mean score of 179.7 ( range , 138 - 223 ) .
forty - five participants ( 67.2% ) had moderate study skills , and 22 participants ( 32.8% ) had good study skills .
tables 1 and 2 showed that scores in the subscales varied from moderate to good in the subscales of information processing and test strategies for both regular and parallel participants .
although students in the parallel program demonstrated significantly better study skills ( mean , 185.414.5 ) than students in the regular program ( mean , 17525.4 ) ( p<0.05 ) , the overall rating for both groups was moderate .
statistically significant differences in the ratings within the subscales of time management ( p=0.003 ) and writing skills ( p=0.004 ) were found between the two programs ( table 3 ) .
the ssaq scores did not significantly vary according to gender , age , year of study , marital status , residence status , or financial support .
the results of this study indicated that a majority of the students in both the regular and parallel programs had only moderate study skills , a finding that is consistent with reports from other similar studies in the field of medical and health sciences education .
students in the parallel program appear to have had better study skills than regular students .
although this discrepancy did not affect the overall rating of the two groups , it may be due to the fact that most of the parallel participants were employed salary earners and more mature , both chronologically and in terms of work experience , than the regular participants .
however , the study failed to demonstrate any effect of age or financial support on study skills .
therefore , one can only speculate that clinical experience may have contributed to the difference . some studies have found that gender differences affected the academic achievement of both male and female secondary school and undergraduate students , and that such differences may be discipline - specific .
this study did not find any differences in the study skills of male and female pharmacy students , nor did it show any significant effects of residence status , marital status , or financial support on study skills .
since these findings differed from those of didarloo and khalkhali s study of iranian students of health science programs , it seems likely that other factors were involved in the outcomes of their study .
first , only pharmacy students were studied , so the results can only reasonably be applied to similar programs .
additionally , the study setting was localised and only a limited number of participants were enrolled .
a cross - sectional design implies that internal validity is difficult to assess , and since the answers to the questionnaire were self - reported , it would also be difficult to estimate reporting bias . despite these limitations ,
the findings of this study significantly contribute to the literature on this topic , and the areas of weakness that were identified may become focal points for designing intervention program to improve study skills in zambia and countries with similar cultures . in conclusion , since time management and writing skills were significantly lower in the regular program pharmacy students than those in the parallel program students , the more intensive training should be done to regular program students to overcome those shortness .
 it aimed to compare the study skills of two groups of undergraduate pharmacy students in the school of medicine , university of zambia using the study skills assessment questionnaire ( ssaq ) , with the goal of analysing students study skills and identifying factors that affect study skills . 
 a questionnaire was distributed to 67 participants from both programs using stratified random sampling . 
 completed questionnaires were rated according to participants study skill . 
 the total scores and scores within subscales were analysed and compared quantitatively . 
 questionnaires were distributed to 37 students in the regular program , and to 30 students in the parallel program . 
 the response rate was 100% . 
 students had moderate to good study skills : 22 respondents ( 32.8% ) showed good study skills , while 45 respondents ( 67.2% ) were found to have moderate study skills . 
 students in the parallel program demonstrated significantly better study skills ( mean ssaq score , 185.414.5 ) , particularly in time management and writing , than the students in the regular program ( mean ssaq score 17525.4 ; p<0.05 ) . 
 no significant differences were found according to age , gender , residential or marital status , or level of study . 
 the students in the parallel program had better time management and writing skills , probably due to their prior work experience . 
 the more intensive training to students in regular program is needed in improving time management and writing skills . 
INTRODUCTION
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL