Self-Assessment of Therapeutic Decision-Making Skills in Pharmacy Students

Objective. The ability of pharmacy students to self-regulate and reflect on knowledge and skills is important as proficient self-assessment skills guide learning strategies and prompt students to bridge their knowledge gaps. The objectives for this study were to determine how well third-year pharmacy students self-assess, explore the rationales behind their self-assessments and determine whether there is a correlation between self-assessment accuracy and academic performance. 

Methods. A quasi-experimental one-group pre-/post-test design was conducted with third-year pharmacy students. Examiner grades, student self-assessment grades, comparative reports, and end-of-semester grades were collected. Students were categorized into tertiles based on academic performance for data analysis. Paired t tests, Pearson r and percentage agreements were conducted to investigate self-assessment accuracy. Correlational statistical tests were implemented to examine the relationships between self-assessment accuracy and academic performance. 

Results. One hundred sixty-two third-year pharmacy students were included. On average, students demonstrated poor self-evaluation skills and underestimated themselves by 4.9%. Lower performing students were generally overconfident in evaluating their performance. There was no significant correlation between students’ self-assessment accuracy and academic performance on the subsequent end-of-semester examination questions. 

Conclusion. Overall, students tended to underestimate their academic performance. Further research on self-assessment is needed to better understand how students think about their performance, which may help to improve education methods, such as inclusion of reflective practices after case-based activities.