Dental students' self-assessment of preclinical examinations

Accurate self-assessment is an important attribute for practicing dentists and, therefore, an important skill to develop in dental students. Our purpose was to examine the relationship between faculty and student assessments of preclinical prosthodontic procedures. Seventy-six second-year students completed two consecutive examinations and two self-assessments. The examinations involved setting maxillary denture teeth on a model to simulate the clinical procedure of a complete maxillary denture. Results indicated no significant increases in examination or student self-assessment mean scores; however, regression analysis indicated changes in student self-assessment scores explained 16.3 percent of the variation in examination scores. In essence, improvement in student self-assessment predicted improvement in examination scores among dental students completing a preclinical dental procedure.