T1-A: Unrealistic Optimism about Perceived Examination Performance

An examination was given in an undergraduate engineering lecture course in order to ascertain if students’ predicted performance tend to be unrealistically optimistic, accurate, or pessimistic. A total of 126 students were assessed via a Fundamentals of Engineering style examination. Almost half (49%) of the students assessed over-predicted their examination performance by one or more letter grades and could be classified as unrealistically optimistic. Approximately one third (34%) of the students accurately predicted their examination performance while the remainder (17%) under-predicted their performance and may be regarded as defensively pessimistic. There was not a correlation between students predicted examination performance and time spent preparing for the examination