Why Students Misjudge How Much They Know

I’m sure you have had this experience. After the test scores are released, one or more students show up at your office and say, “I felt really confident going into this test. I know the material, but my grade doesn’t show it.” 

Research has shown that students often believe they have learned the material when they haven’t (Chew, 2025; Willingham, 2004). Why is this? 

There are several reasons.

Time equals learning

A common question we ask students when they show up unhappy with their grade is, “Tell me how you studied.” Their responses tend to be something like, “I studied all night for two nights before the exam.”  

Having sufficient time to study is essential to success, but time alone is not a reliable measure of learning. Students frequently associate how long they studied with preparedness, leading them to become overconfident or to think they are well prepared (Chew, 2025). But this idea often leads students to use ineffective study strategies. Research continues to show that students commonly use ineffective study strategies, partly due to ignorance, habit, and ease. These approaches tend to include highlighting and rereading, which generally do not lead to learning or long-term retention (Blasiman et al., 2017; Weimer, 2021). Students become so familiar with the material from repeated reading that they confuse familiarity with learning. They overlook the fact that effective study and learning require effort.  

Students don’t take notes

With the use of educational technology, such as video-recorded lectures and access to presentation slides, students commonly don’t see the need to take notes. In one study, the percentage of students taking notes in live versus online lectures dropped from 96% to 49% (Morehead et al., 2019). Similar to rereading, students think that listening to material means they are learning it. However, more often they listen to pre-recorded lectures while engaged in other activities, such as driving or texting, and therefore don’t take notes. Yet, the research is strong, notetaking helps students learn (Chew, 2025; Stapleton-Corcoran, 2023). In fact, the ongoing debate over whether handwriting notes is better has been addressed by a recent study that confirmed that taking notes by hand engages more brain regions, whereas typing on a computer can occur without conscious effort (Hu, 2024).  

Students use ineffective study strategies

Evidence is consistent that students prefer to use the least effective learning strategies, even when they know they are ineffective (Biwer et al., 2020). The problem is that these effective strategies don’t really engage thinking. In some ways, they are mindless. As mentioned earlier, students seek to make the material feel familiar without truly understanding the concepts and are therefore unable to apply them. They falsely think that if they recognize it, they know it. This misconception contributes to their overconfidence. For studying to be effective, students need to make meaningful connections and use retrieval and application strategies. (If you want more information about effective student learning strategies Click Here).  

Students are poor at judging their own learning, leading to inaccurate assumptions about their exam preparation (Pan & Bjork, 2024). Teachers can help mitigate this by taking the time to ensure that students know effective study strategies and by providing formative assessment and feedback to help students more accurately determine their knowledge levels. In addition, we often assume that students know how to use feedback effectively. This belief is not commonly true. Sometimes they don’t even read it. So, making sure students understand and use feedback, known as feedback literacy, can help. You can read more about feedback literacy HERE.

References:

Biwer, F., Egbrink, M. G. A. o., Aalten, P., & de Bruin, A. B. H. (2020). Fostering effective learning strategies in higher education—A mixed-methods study. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 9(2), 186–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.03.004  

Blasiman, R. N., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2016). The what, how much, and when of study strategies: comparing intended versus actual study behavior. Memory, 25(6), 784-792. 

Chew, S. L. (2025, May 19). How students fool themselves. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/student-learning/how-students-fool-themselves/  

Hu, C. (2024, February 21). Why writing by hand is better for memory and learning. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/  

Morehead, K., Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Blasiman, R., & Hollis, R. B. (2019). Notetaking habits of 21st Century college students: Implications for student learning, memory, and achievement. Memory, 27(6), 807–819. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1569694  

Pan, S. C. & Bjork, R. A. (2024). Acquiring an accurate mental model of human learning: Toward an owner’s manual. In M. J. Kahana & A. D. Wagner (Eds.), Oxford handbook of human memory volume II: Applications (pp. 2005–2034). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190917982.013.69  

Stapleton-Corcoran, E. (2023, October 30). Notetaking. University of Illinois Chicago Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence. https://teaching.uic.edu/cate-teaching-guides/inclusive-equity-minded-teaching-practices/note-taking/  

Weimer, M. (2021). An update on study strategies. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/for-those-who-teach/an-update-on-study-strategies  

Willingham, D. T. (Winter 2003-2004). How to help students see when their knowledge is superficial or incomplete. American Federation of Teachers, American Educator. https://www.aft.org/ae/winter2003-2004/willingham_sb