Over-confident students tend to have higher grades, researchers say

So ‘know-it-alls’ don’t really exaggerate about their talents, if experts are to be believed. According to a new study, an ‘exaggerated view of intellectual ability and knowledge’ is a good predictor of a person’s academic achievements.

The study involved the 135 participants, who did not know each other, split into groups of three to five and spend only about 45 minutes together to share their strengths and weaknesses, brainstorm about a theoretical scenario in which they had extra fingers, work together on math and verbal questions and discuss their results.

The researchers found that being excessively confident when it came to rating one’s intellectual ignorance – an exaggerated view of the intellectual ability and knowledge – actually gave a general prediction of academic achievement, especially with regards to individual coursework. This study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality, reports the Daily Mail.