The Influence of Gender on Saudi Students Performance in the Undergraduate Surgical Examination

Abstract

The relationship between student gender and examination of medical knowledge and clinical competence has been assessed by a number of studies from western countries with controversial results. The aim of this study was to investigate if gender would make a difference on the performance of Arab medical students in the final certifying examination in surgery. Methods: This a cross-sectional study which was carried out at Department of Surgery, University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia over 3 years. The scores in each section and the total score of the final certifying examination of surgery were recorded for all sixth year students between 2008 and 2011. Differences between the scores of the female and male students in the written test and subjective examinations were assessed. Results: Six hundred and twenty students were involved in this study. Three hundred and fifty were male and 270 were female. Overall scores revealed that female medical students scored significantly better with lower failure rate compared to their male colleagues. Female students received significantly better scores than male in subjective tests. However, there was no significant difference between groups in written examination. Conclusion: There was no significant difference between male and female students in the written examination scores. However, female students performed better in subjective evaluations. Further studies are warranted to reveal the reasons behind this difference.