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Visible Learning™
Visible Learning MetaX
Version 1.4 – Updated February 2026

Self-reported grades

Overview

  • Influence: Self-reported grades
  • Domain: Student
  • Sub-Domain: Prior knowledge and background
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: A practice by which students assess the quality of their own work or their level of mastery over a given subject domain. This practice provides the opportunity for student academic growth. The validity of such self-grading is often assessed by comparing a student's "self-reported" grade with that provided by an instructor.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 6
  • Number of studies: 218
  • Number of students: 23,168
  • Number of effects: 427
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.96
  • Robustness index: 3

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Journal of Applied Psychology Mabe & West Validity of self-evaluation of ability: A review and meta-analysis 1982 Self-evaluation of achievement 35 13,565 35 0.93
Review of Educational Research Falchikov & Boud Student self assessment in higher education: a meta-analysis 1989 Self-assessment in college 57 5,332 96 0.47
Language Testing Ross Self-Assessment in Second Language Testing: A Meta-Analysis and Analysis of Experiential Factors 1998 Self-assessment in second language 11 NA 60 1.63
Review of Educational Research Falchikov & Goldfinch Student peer assessment in higher education: A meta-analysis comparing peer and teacher marks 2000 Self-assessment in college 48 4,271 56 1.91
Psychological Bulletin Freund & Kasten How smart do you think you are? A meta-analysis on the validity of self-estimates of cognitive ability 2012 Self-estimates of ability 41 NA 154 0.70
Evaluation in Higher Education Yan, Wang, Boud, & Lao The effect of self-assessment on academic performance and the role of explicitness: a meta-analysis 2021 Self-assessment 26 NA 26 0.46
TOTAL/AVERAGE 218 23,168 427 1.02
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