The correlation of lesson scheduling on exam performance among medical students: The case of Karaman

Aim: To investigate the association between lecture timing and the academic performance of medical students using aggregated curriculum data.Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine at XXX University, covering the 2023–2025 academic years. The unit of analysis was aggregated lesson-level data (n=90 lessons across 29 committees). The primary independent variable was the percentage of lesson hours scheduled before noon (Lesson Schedule Distribution Before noon - LSDB), and the primary outcome was the mean theoretical exam score for each lesson. Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman correlation and non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U and Friedman) to examine the relationship between scheduling and performance.Results: The overall mean exam score for the 2023–2025 period was 67.70±8.61, with a mean LSDB of 74.27%. A strong positive correlation was observed between the overall mean score and LSDB for both the 2023-2024 (r=0.729, p<0.05) and 2024-2025 (r=0.728, p<0.05) academic years. Grade-specific analyses consistently showed positive associations, with the strongest correlations found in the 1st (r=0.783) and 2nd grades (r=0.797) during the 2023-2024 period.Conclusion: The findings suggest a significant positive association between morning-heavy schedules and higher mean exam scores in a medical education context. While these results highlight the importance of time-of-day effects in curriculum planning, the observational nature of the study precludes causal inferences.