The relationship between student learning process, study success and the nature of assessment: A qualitative study

• Course grades do not necessarily tell anything about the quality of student learning outcomes.
• The nature of the assessment does not affect students studying alone, students intentions, study motivation and self-regulation should also be taken into account.
• The relationship between a surface approach to learning and high achievement may be due to the nature of the exam.
• Students who apply deep approaches to learning but are unorganised do not succeed well at the university.

Assessment has an important role in affecting students’ learning, but qualitative studies regarding this relationship are rather scarce. In addition, course grades do not necessarily reflect the quality of learning outcomes. The aim is to qualitatively examine why high and low achieving students in the same course study differently according to the assessment method and how they explain their behaviour. Altogether 24 students were interviewed in this study. Analyses were conducted with inductive content analysis. The results indicate that course grades do not necessarily reflect qualitative learning outcomes due to the nature of the assessment. In addition, the present study suggests that self-regulation and motivation are important factors in studying and might prevent the negative effect of inappropriate assessment.