Engineering Students’ Experience of Surprise Caused by Test Performance in Foundational Courses

When students who are confident in their abilities do not perform well in an important course, they are likely to experience surprise. This case study investigated engineering students' experiences of surprise caused by test scores in foundational courses. Students taking Engineering Statics reflected on their surprise after completing tests by following a template that asked questions about how surprised they were (experiential indicator of surprise), how much they liked their scores (affective indicator), and how much they expected such scores (cognitive indicator). An inductive analysis of the reflections showed that students were at least moderately unpleasantly surprised and moderately pleasantly surprised in 34.6% and 13.5% of the reflections, respectively. Among all reflections, 34.6% showed that students did not like their scores, and 25% showed that they did not expect such scores. A major cause of unpleasant surprise was the disparity between the students' high confidence in their understanding and their lower-than-expected scores. The other major cause was the disparity between the students' high effort in studying for the tests and their scores that were lower than expected. More than half of these students prepared for tests by reviewing materials. The emotions associated with unpleasant surprise included feelings of being disappointed, frustrated, and upset, and those associated with pleasant surprise were happiness and relief.