The way that medical students used objectives throughout the curriculum and factors that influenced their level of use was studied at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, a three-year medical school with an entirely objectives-based curriculum. A questionnaire mailed to 75 students yielded a 75 percent return. The predominant modes for using objectives were to read them prior to studying texts, to share written answers to objectives with a study group, and to self-test after studying. The main findings, which replicated those of a previous study, are as follows: steadily decreasing usefulness of objectives from the basic science to the clinical years, greater use of objectives in times of frequent testing and when students expected objectives to be tested, greater use of objectives that are easy to use, a small percentage of students feeling inhibited by objectives, and student use of objectives to meet the demands of the evaluation system. The primary motive for students to use objectives appears to be to increase the efficiency of their study time. It is suggested that at least three important factors influence the congruency among objectives, teaching, and evaluation: the number of faculty involved in teaching (generally greater in clinical departments), the cohesiveness of faculty (generally less for clinical associates and residents), and the subjectivity of the student evaluation system (generally greater in clinical departments). It is concluded that stated objectives will be most valuable to medical students in the basic science portions of the curriculum because it is easier to achieve congruency between objectives and evaluation there. (SW)