Background: There are more than 50 medical colleges in Punjab, and the traditional mode of teaching is ‘teacher dominant’, while students are passive learners. The curriculum prescribed by the University Of Health Sciences (UHS) emphasizes more on theoretical knowledge of subjects along with extensive memorization, but less stress on concept building and development of learning skills. Although traditional modes of teaching are adopted by medical institutes, but knowledge about the students’ perspective regarding concept building and learning skills is utmost necessary to improve the methods of teaching

Aim: To assess the students’ perception regarding effective teaching, concept building and learning strategies.

Methods: The study involved a total of 378 male and female students from MBBS, BDS and DPT sessions and a structured questionnaire was given to each student after taking consent, and teaching modalities were rated using Likert scale.

Results: Out of 378 students, 62% were females, while 38% were males, and among these 43% students were residing in hostels, while 57% were day scholars. Illustration of concepts using white board was rated 61.2%, interactive sessions/tutorials 46.1%, demonstrations by teacher 34%, power point presentation lectures using multi-media 25% while small group discussion was rated 6.5%.

Conclusions: White board teaching was considered as most effective tool for development of concept and learning (61.2%), followed by interactive sessions (46.1%). Power point presentation lecture was rated as 2^nd least effective method (25%), while  small group discussions was rated as least effective modality (6.5%).

Keywords: Conceptual  teaching, medical students, modes of learning