In view of conflicting opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of frontal teaching (FT) and problem-oriented learning (POL), we carried out a pilot project in which both of these methods were used for teaching one specific course namely, 'Nursing Neurological Patients'. The aim was to determine whether there are short- or long-term differences in student performance at examinations.The results showed that over a short term (4 weeks after completion of the course), students remembered very well what they had learnt in their frontal teaching course, but lost some of this knowledge in the long term (7 months after completion of the course). In contrast, in the long term, students retained better what they had learnt under the method of POL.