Identifying Testing Strategies in Conceptual Modelling Education

Context: Software testing is an often used method to ensure software quality, with developers spending a significant amount of time on it. However, software testing education is underrepresented in curricula, particularly with regard to Conceptual Modelling (CM), where model-level validation is important. As a consequence, graduate students are insufficiently prepared for industry-level testing. Objective: We want to understand students' behavioural patterns during model testing and their relationship to testing effectiveness.Method: We use process mining to analyze 554 interaction logs from students using a conceptual model simulation tool.Results: We identify three strategies: the coverage chaser (using feedback iteratively), the problem solver (balancing feedback with requirements focus), and the disconnected tester (avoiding feedback-driven iteration). High-coverage students integrated feedback into test loops; low-coverage students did not. Notably, high and average-coverage students achieved similar grades, suggesting a plateau where systematic testing enables sufficient educational performance without requiring maximum coverage.Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of teaching students to systematically use coverage feedback to guide test design in CM contexts.