Gender Differences in Medical Students' Self-Assessment: Longitudinal Multi-Cohort Study.

Authors

Lennart Handke, Hendrik Friederichs

Published in

JMIR medical education. Volume 12. Pages e91071. Jul 17, 2026. Epub Jul 17, 2026.

Abstract

Self-assessment is a key requirement for lifelong learning in medicine. Evidence from gender-related research indicates that important moderators affecting self-assessment are influenced by gender. Therefore, systematic gender differences in the accuracy of self-assessment may be assumed.
The present study aimed to examine gender differences in medical students' self-assessment. Specifically, this study addressed two research questions: (1) Are there systematic gender differences in medical students' self-assessment accuracy? (2) What is the magnitude of these gender differences when accounting for academic progress and knowledge?
Medical students from 3 cohorts at Medical School OWL were surveyed in 3 waves between April 2023 and April 2024 during the Progress Test Medicine. Prior to taking the test, students were asked to indicate the percentage of Progress Test Medicine questions that they expected to answer correctly in 5 knowledge areas. Self-assessment accuracy was calculated as the difference between the subjective self-assessment and the objective test score. Linear mixed models were used to analyze the influence of gender on students' self-assessment accuracy while accounting for academic progress and knowledge.
A total of 165 students with 404 data points participated in this study (269/404, 66.6% women; 135/404, 33.4% men; mean age 21.96, SD 3.61 years). Across all models, women rated themselves significantly less accurately than men (adjusted P values ranged from <.001 to .01). The observed gender effect ranged from -6.08 to -3.74 percentage points.
The results indicated systematic gender differences in medical students' self-assessment in favor of men, with a magnitude comparable to the average knowledge acquired in an entire semester of study. In view of the potentially negative consequences of inaccurate self-assessment, targeted support for realistic self-assessment during medical studies may be particularly beneficial for women.

PMID:
42467405
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jul 2026.

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