Medical education
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Students can take different approaches to learning and studying: deep (understanding material); surface (memorizing details), and strategic (motivated by assessments). It is important to know how assessments affect student choices of approach. ⋯ The correlations met our expectations in terms of direction, but were weaker and less consistent than anticipated. Possible reasons include the drive to test basic (core) material, the use of questions that may limit students' scope of expression and markers' ability to detect a deep approach. It is, however, important to refine medical programmes, particularly assessments, so that they concur with and do not adversely affect students' learning approaches.