Academic counselling: Impact of an intervention program on medical students of pharmacology.

Background: Students are anxious and stressed during exams; so are not able to perform well in them. Counselling has been found to improve performance of students. Hence, we wanted to conduct academic counselling for medical students and evaluate it. Objective: To improve performance of medical students in exams through academic counselling (AC). Method: Faculty was trained on conducting AC through role play. A pre-test was taken to assess the baseline knowledge of students. AC of students was conducted. A post-test was then taken for the students. Marks of pre-test and post test were compared to see for improvement of students following our intervention. Feedback was taken from students on the effectiveness of counselling using a questionnaire based on 5-point Likert scale. Feedback was also taken from faculty. Results and interpretation: There was a marked improvement in post-test marks of students who underwent counselling. Feedback from students and faculties was positive. Conclusion: Faculty can guide students on study skills through AC. It can be conducted as formative feedback at mid-term or following internal exams of students.