Results
Results
Table 1 shows the number of participating students by year . Participating students in both parts of the study were not significantly different from their peers in terms of age , gender or nationality .
Part 1 of the study included 189 students , which is 30.4 % of the eligible population of 621 students , of whom 89 ( 47.1 %) were male , 139 ( 73.5 %) were Maltese nationals , 34 ( 17.9 %) and 16 ( 8.4 %) were European and other international students , respectively .
Overall , students underestimated their true performance by 16.2 ± 15.2 % ( mean ± SD ), with no improvement in accuracy of self-evaluation noted from Year 1 to Year 4 ( p = 0.7560 ).
Table 2 shows the percent difference ( Mean +/ - SD ) between the actual and self-reported scores in the different demographic groups analysed . There was no significant difference in the mean overall score obtained by gender ( Male 60.8 +/ -13.6 ; Female 63.5 +/ -11.6 ; p = 0.15 ). However , female students underrated themselves significantly more than their male counterparts ( 19.1 ± 13.9 % vs 12.8 ± 16.0 %, p = 0.0048 ). Non-Maltese European students estimated the furthest below their actual score ( 22.9 ± 9.5 %), compared with Maltese ( 15.7 ± 15.8 %) and other international ( 5.3 ± 12.8 %) students ( p = 0.0005 ).
In Part 2 of the study , 58 out of 110 students in Year 2 volunteered for the gastrointestinal anatomy test giving a participation rate of 52.7 %. Students considered the negatively marked true / false questions to be the hardest , followed by extended matching questions , single phrase answers and best-of-five multiple choice questions .
A weak-to-moderate uphill correlation was noted between improved performance and degree of underestimation ( Pearson ' s r = 0.38 , 95 % CI 0.13 to 0.58 , p = 0.0033 ). No difference was found in students ' ability to predict their mark in relation to the question type they considered hardest ( MCQ / EMQ / One phrase answers ).