Effects of sex and alphabetical listing on examination performance of medical students.

Abstract

An analysis of examination performance by second-year medical students was undertaken in order to investigate suspected correlations with sex and surname initial. On genetics questions women gained 8.6% higher marks than men, a highly significant difference reflected also in their superior performance overall. Failure rates of men, but not women students in genetics showed a significant positive correlation with alphabetical listing and ranged from 14% in the A-C region to 33% in the region T-Z. Distinction grades in genetics showed a significant negative relationship with alphabetical listing especially among women, ranging from 50% among the As to 13% in the J-S region, rising again to 22% at T-Z. The alphabetically based trend in men's failures in genetics was confirmed by their results in the whole examination, although the two marks did not correlate at an individual level. In contrast, among women achievement correlated reasonably well in the two assessments.