The Medical Journal of Tikrit University (1997);3:209-214 209-214 The Effects of Objective Study on The Attitudes of Medical Students Towards Their Future Professional Skills. Ghanim Y. Mustafa–Alsheikh, Abed I.M. Allan, Nabeel D. Suleiman Tikrit University College Of Medicine (TUCOM), P. O. Box 45, Tikrit 28001, Iraq. Abstract This study hypothesizes that objective learning in medical schools, when compared with subject-based, offers students unlimited number of real opportunities to discover early the importance of professional skills they need to acquire during study years. Twenty percent of medical students from Basrah, Mosul and Tikrit universities were asked to indicate the importance of 16 equally important skills ranging from decision-making, self-learning to clinical and communication and administrative skills. More than 50% of students from Tikrit indicated the importance of 15 skills compared with only 5 skills from Mosul and Basrah. This is attributed to the effect of the problem-based objective curriculum adopted by Tikrit only as compared with the subject-based curriculum adopted by Mosul and Basrah colleges. Med. J. Tikrit Univ. (1997); 3:209-214 Keywords: Medical Education; Objective Study; Professional Skills; Tikrit Iraq. Introduction The study of medicine in Iraq takes 6 years during which students study number theoretical, practical, and clinical or field subjects and disciplines to be prepared to work as doctors upon graduation. During their study, students are expected to acquire large number of abilities and skills. The level of performance of these abilities and skills are gained depends on the curriculum adopted by the medical school. Curriculum differs from being conventional subject-based designed around separate subjects or being innovative integrated designed around problems or being a hybrid based on variable degree of subject integration (1) . Despite the fact that almost all medical schools formulate general and intermediate educational objectives, small number of schools utilizes these objectives in the process of curriculum design. These benchmarks are often prepared in isolation and without derivation from the known sources like task analysis of the targeted job description or the systematic assessment of community health needs. (2,3) Studies have clearly shown the importance of educational objectives for learners ahead of the educational process and activities of all kinds. (4) Mager (5) describes that importance when assuming that “If you are not certain of where you are going you may very well end up somewhere else (and not even know it). Identifying objectives ahead of educational activity facilitate learners to exert every effort to achieve them independently. It allows self-assessment, discovering gaps as difference in level of comprehension and speed of learning among the cohort of learners is undoubtedly variable. (6) The formulation of educational objectives is not a simple task. Each objective has to be precisely written to cover all 4 components namely a measurable action verb, content of the action, conditions and criteria of the act to permit a clearly specific, measurable, feasible, time bound and determined level of performance suitable for the learners to recognize and achieve. Among the 11 medical colleges operating at present time in Iraq, Tikrit University College of Medicine (TUCOM) has adapted, since its foundation in 1989 (7,8) a different innovative curriculum comparable to those pioneered in McMaster, Canada (9) , Maastricht,