Assessment of the Relation between Students\' Gender and Their Scores on Selecting Confidence Choices in Confidence-Based Exams

Abstract

Introduction: There are various ways such as confidence-based exams to eliminate lucky guesses on a multiple choice question test. In this study the relation between students’ gender and their score on selecting confidence choices in confidence based exams was assessed. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective study. It was done on all of the medical students taking Biochemistry course during 2007-2010 in Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. Data was extracted from files of end-semester confidence based course exams. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPSS and the specified software for confidence-based exam analysis. Results: Mean of the students' confidence level was higher in female students than male ones. Comparisons of confidence level mean in both genders were different and this difference was significant (p=0.047). Conclusion: Results of this study showed that female students answer to confidence based questions with higher confidence than male ones, and this can be because of the different psychological characteristics of the genders