The Ability of Real Estate Students to Self-Assess: Implications for Effective Course Management

Engaged students desire to do well, while course instructors endeavor to create a course environment that will achieve long-term mastery of the subject and student success in the classroom and beyond. Despite the effort put forth by both parties, the result is sometimes less favorable than expected. Studies have shown that people tend to overestimate their own abilities (“overconfidence”). When students are overconfident it leads them to believe that they know more than they actually do and consequently study less, while basing their expectations on what grade they would like to achieve, all of which further serves to compound the problem. There is no reason to believe that this does not also apply to real estate students. Indeed, using data from three different universities the authors seek to determine whether real estate students, both undergraduate and graduate, are able to accurately self-evaluate their own ability, both relative to their own performance, and vis-à-vis what they believed that the class average would be. We seek to determine if 1) students can properly self-assess their ability as measured by performance, 2) if any overconfidence exists relative to their expectations compared to their estimation of their peers, and 3) if overconfidence does exist, are there specific factors that influence them such as gender. The results presented in this paper are useful for a real estate instructor to manage expectations and provide a better learning environment.