Date Posted: June 10, 2026

Author/s: Mari-Ann B. Bringas, MD, Maria Katreena M. Eslava, Ma. Rio Lauren M. Imbao, Precious Mary M. Lim, Maria Catrina G. Macaspac, Mariane O. Magahis, Mikaella Roma Mandi, Roel Tito Jr. N. Marcial, Karl Piolo E. Mondelo, Patricia Ann E. Palaguayan, Kathleene Mae L. Rosales, Mark Angelo P. Trinidad, Patricia Ariandne Marie P. Zamora

Background: As the pandemic brought about by COVID-19 became a global burden, educational institutions, including medical schools, shifted their platform for learning from traditional classes to using electronic and online resources – which consequently, may affect the academic performance of most students.

Aim: To compare the academic performance of medical students of FEU-NRMF, particularly the first semester of their first year, across three consecutive academic years – A.Y. 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022, with three different learning set-ups – pre-pandemic, onset of the pandemic, and the subsequent pandemic period.

Methods: Analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted among first-year medical students of FEUNRMF Institute of Medicine enrolled during AY 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic), AY 2020-2021 (onset of pandemic), and AY 2021-2022 (subsequent pandemic). Raw grades were collected and reviewed with consent through anonymized student records from individualized departments. The data were assessed using the Pearson Chi-square test.

Results: The weighted average of students has statistically significant difference (p=.003), with more medical students having a good academic performance on AY 2020-2021(Pandemic) (15.1%), than AY 2019-2020 (Pre-pandemic) (11.6%) and AY 2021-2022 (Post pandemic) (5.1%), respectively; more students with average academic performance in AY 2021-2022 (45.5%) than in AY 2020-2021 (42.6%) and AY 2019-2020 (39.4%); and more students with poor academic performance in AY 2021-2022 (49.5%) than in AY 2019-2020 (49.0%) and AY 2020-2021 (42.3%).

Conclusion: There is generally a significant difference in the academic performances across the three different periods in all subjects except for Physiology. There is an increasing pattern in the number of poor performers in the comparison between AY 2019-2020 and AY 2021-2022. The prevalence of this pattern seems to be more apparent in laboratory-intense subjects. Therefore, restrictions to online learning modalities and lack of access to the physical face-to-face learning modalities have a negative impact on the academic performance of students.

Keywords:
Academic performance, medical students, COVID-19, online learning