Assessing the Role of Gender in Objective and Subjective Question Outcomes in Medical Physiology Among First Year Medical Students

Abstract

Context: Several studies have indicated that female medical students tend to outperform their male counterparts in subjective assessments. Studies in other subjects like Physics and Mathematics, as well as entrance exams, suggest that male students perform better in Multiple Choice Question (MCQ)-based assessments. Limited research has been conducted on gender differences in performance across objective and subjective assessments in medical education. Our study aims to examine the differences in performance between male and female students in Physiology assessments.

Aims: To compare the performance of male and female students in MCQ based and subjective assessment in Physiology.

Settings and Design: The study was conducted as a retrospective cross-sectional study. Marks obtained by all 299 students from 2 batches 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 in the prefinal exams of Physiology were collected.

Methods and Material: Marks obtained in MCQ and descriptive sections of both Paper I and Paper II together were converted to percentage (%) score and was analyzed with respect to gender.

Statistical analysis used: Comparison of percentage marks obtained by male(n=141) and female students(n=158) is done by Student T- test. Correlation between the marks obtained in MCQ and descriptive sections is done by Pearson Correlation.

Results: Students obtained significantly more percentage marks in MCQs (60.97%) as compared to Subjective questions (47.43%). Female students scored significantly more marks in descriptive part having subjective questions as compared to male students (Females-47.3%, Males- 44.95% p<0.001). Male students scored slightly higher percentage marks in MCQs; the difference is not statistically significant. There is statistically significant correlation of subjective and MCQ (objective) marks of all students put together.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that female students perform significantly better than their male counterparts in subjective tests, whereas no significant difference is observed between the genders in MCQ marks.