Background: The medical curriculum in most colleges is taught in a traditional, subject-wise fashion predominantly through didactic lectures. PBL is an effective way of delivering medical education in a coherent, integrated manner. Aim and Objectives: To compare PBL with traditional learning method. Type of Study:comparative study. Materials & Method: 96 medical students from Dr. Vasantrao Pawar medical college,Nasik were recruited during second term of their second year. Ten topics from the 2nd term syllabus of second year were selected. Out of these 10 topics, 5 were covered under PBL method and remaining under traditional lectures. For PBL sessions, all students were grouped into 12, with each group consisting of 8 students. At the end of study, prestructured and pretested questionnaire consisting of items pertaining to the process of PBL was filled from students and also performance of students was assessed in post session examination. Results: Out of the 96 students, 84(87.5%), 87(90.6%) and 75(78.13%) students said PBL increased their motivation to participate in class, to attend class and to do well in the course respectively. Also, 90 (93.75%) students said that PBL enhanced their communication skills and 88(91.67%) students said that PBL has enhanced their retention of course content. In PBL Covered Topics, 68.75%students scored above e”75% while in Traditional Lecture Covered Topics, 44.79% students scored e”75%. Average attendance in PBL session was 89.79% while in traditional lecture method it was 78.95%. Conclusion: In institute with packed curriculum, introducing more PBL sessions is not feasible as it is time consuming, though it is more effective method of learning. So the hybrid method i.e. combination of these two methods will be more effective than any of them alone. 

Key Words: Problem based learning (PBL); Traditional teaching methods (lecture-based); Medical education; Integrated teaching.