Do Students Know How Much They Know?

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Alex Lebedinsky

Abstract

This paper uses a data set consisting of more than 2,000 quiz scores from anintroductory statistics class and compares the actual quiz scores with students’ post-testpredictions of quiz scores. The main findings are as follows: (1) Predicted scores arehigher, on average, than actual scores, (2) better students predict their scores moreaccurately, (3) self-evaluation accuracy is worse when the material is difficult, and (4)students improve their self-evaluation accuracy over time. While previous researchshowed only modest improvement in self-evaluation accuracy, this study demonstratesdramatic improvements in accuracy, possibly due to the fact that students in the samplewere tested frequently throughout semester. (A2, A22)

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