to my amazement, when do you use it?
I need an expression that fits the following situation

I was told to do this way , those were the rules
however on student didnt follow the rules and , to my surprise/amazement/ ....??? , he got better results.

It is the feeling of dissapointment+ surprise, isnt it?

Thanks

Question

to my amazement, when do you use it?
I need an expression that fits the following situation

I was told to do this way , those were the rules 
however on student didnt follow the rules and , to my surprise/amazement/ ....???   , he got better results.

It is the feeling of dissapointment+ surprise,  isnt it?

Thanks

Answer

It's more an expression of surprise (and perhaps disbelief) rather than disappointment.  In fact, disappointment might not necessarily even come into it, e.g.,

"To my amazement, the shop was still open"

In your example, a similar expression might be;

"We were told to complete the task in a specific way, which I did, however to my amazement, a student who did it completely differently got a better mark than me!"

Answer

.. and to my great surprise he got better results.

Answer

You're right about surprise, but not about disappointment. It means that it was the complete opposite of what I expected. I was amazed to see that he got such good results.