There is an increasing concern that the curricula of many medical schools put too heavy an emphasis on memorization of facts and little stress on problem solving or self-directed study skills necessary for the practice of medicine. Problem-based, self-directed learning is a teaching-learning method specifically designed to emphasize these skills and to increase the retention of facts and their recall in the clinical situation. This approach, built on research into the problem-solving skills of physicians and principles of educational psychology, is employed by several medical schools and serves as an antidote to the many educational abuses seen in more traditional approaches.