2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Students can sometimes either overestimate or underestimate their abilities. This can be particularly true of higher stakes assessments such as quizzes and exams. Students with lower confidence often struggle with retention and performance and could possibly lose interest in Engineering. This is particularly true of underrepresented students in Engineering and therefore it is crucial to understand any demographic discrepancies that may exist. This paper examines the confidence of students in two second year Engineering classes by having them predict their scores both before and after quizzes and then compares those predictions to their actual performance. This is then broken down by student reported demographic data to support previous research and to determine any new emerging trends. The data suggested that students with lower grades tended to overestimate their performance, while higher achieving students tended to underestimate their abilities. This lower confidence was particularly true for non-male and older students.