Pharmacy Students’ Ability to Think About Thinking
Objective. To investigate students’ metacognitive skills to distinguish what they know from what they do not know, to assess students’ prediction of performance on a summative examination, and to compare student-identified incorrect questions with actual examination performance in order to improve exam quality. Methods. Students completed a test-taking questionnaire identifying items perceived to be incorrect and rating their test-taking ability. Results. Higher performing students evidenced better metacognitive skills by more accurately identifying incorrect items on the exam. Most students (86%) underpredicted their performance on the summative examination (actual=73.6 ± 7.1 versus predicted=63.7 ± 10.5, p<0.05). Student responses helped refine items and resulted in examination changes. Conclusion. Metacognition is important to the development of life-long learning in pharmacy students. Students able to monitor what they know and what they do not know can improve their performance.