چکیده (انگلیسی):

Past studies indicate that students are frequently poor judges of their likely academic performance
in the classroom. The difficulty a student faces in accurately predicting performance on a
classroom exam may be due to unrealistic optimism or may be due to an inability to self-evaluate
academic performance, but the resulting disconnect between expectations and reality can be very
discouraging to students and may lead to early attrition. This paper studies undergraduate
business students and investigates differences between scores they predicted earning on final
exams and scores actually earned. Results indicate that the average student will overestimate an
exam score by over five points. Results also indicate that freshmen students, and students with
low cumulative grade point averages are likely to overestimate exam scores by the equivalent of a
letter grade. Understanding this phenomenon may help educators deal with discouraged students
and provide opportunities for faculty to create a learning environment that reduces attrition and
ultimately increases student success and graduation rates.