Learning Preferences of Undergraduate Medical Students in Different Phases of MBBS Course: A Cross Sectional Study Using VARK Questionnaire.

VARK questionnaire (Visual, Aural, Reading/ writing and Kinesthetic) is a simple tool to assess learning styles of individuals that may be a single modality or any combination of them. Knowing the learning preferences is important as it helps design useful teaching methods for changing mindset of students. The objectives of the study were to assess the learning preferences of MBBS students of all the four academic years i.e. Phase one to Phase three part 2 and to determine whether their preferences vary across genders, academic years, teaching medium or teaching board in their schools. In this cross-sectional study conducted at a Medical College in West Bengal, India, MBBS students were interviewed with a printed VARK questionnaire. Tabulated answers were sent to the VARK team (VARK-LEARN.COM) for analysis. On reception of the analyzed individual results, statistical analysis was done. Total 504 students from the four academic years comprising 307 boys (61%) and 197 girls (39%) were included in the study. VARK Type Two (28%) were most liked followed by K (17.5%), AK (14.3%), VAK (12.7%), A (9.5%), VARK transition (4.4%) etc. When grouped preference was assessed, students mostly liked Quadmodal style closely followed by Unimodal style. There was no significant difference of learning preferences across genders, academic years, teaching medium in school and board of education in school. The study reveals that most of the students use more than one modality for learning and a major share of them prefer to learn with hands on experience.