THE ROLE OF METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS OF READING STRATEGIES AS A PREDICTOR OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.

Background and objectives: Medicine being a very intensive course requires the learners to be constantly focused and ready to imbibe information. To stay up to date with the rapidly evolving world of medicine, it is imperative that learners become skilled readers and thereby good performers academically. Material and methods: 86 first year medical students were asked to fill the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) questionnaire and the findings were compared with their academic scores and results analyzed. Results: Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies may be considered as an indicator of academic performance. On analysis of the subscales, support reading strategies has highly significant positive correlation while global reading strategies with overall strategies have a significant positive correlation with academic performance. Problem solving strategies have no significant role to play. Conclusion: Incorporation of reading strategies as an actively interventional tool in the medical curriculum will ensure academic success. Development of strategies foster independent learning and transfers responsibility for monitoring learning from the teachers to students themselves as the medical profession demands one to be lifelong learners.