Usable knowledge, hazardous ignorance - beyond the percentage correct score
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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Evidence-based Knowledge Synthesis and Hypothesis Validation: Navigating Biomedical Knowledge Bases via Explainable AI and Agentic Systems
Published on: June 13, 2025
Valerie Dory1, Jan Degryse, Ann Roex
1Centre Academique de Medecine Generale, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. valerie.dory@uclouvain.be
Background:
Little attention has been paid to the metacognitive ability of medical students.
Aim:
We used confidence marking to explore certainty of knowledge and ignorance.
Methods:
One hundred and twenty-seven of 169 general practice trainees took part. Students sat a written multiple choice question (MCQ) test. Each answer was followed by a degree of certainty judgement. Answers attributed with a high degree of certainty were used to compute overall usable knowledge, hazardous ignorance, proportions of knowledge that is usable and of ignorance that is hazardous. The former variables were analysed according to MCQ score, year of training and gender.
Results:
At a group level, the mean amount of usable knowledge on the MCQ was 21.13%, mean amount of hazardous ignorance on the MCQ was 5.21%, mean proportion of knowledge that was usable was 36.57%, mean proportion of ignorance that was hazardous was 14.32%. There were neither significant differences between highest and lowest quartiles of MCQ score, nor according to year of training. Men had higher levels of ignorance that is hazardous.
Conclusion:
A third of trainees' knowledge was partial. A sixth of their ignorance was hazardous. Confidence marking can aid formative assessment and could potentially be implemented into summative assessments.
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