Well, she's been around him and the other Asha'man long enough to have a general sense of what they are capable of, and she's fairly observant so her knowing that he's stronger than herself, Nynaeve or Alivia seems like a fair assumption to make.
Flinn seems to have struck hard right from the start. And he had the most success. Verin struck first too, but with a shield, and she fared the worst, losing someone after the fight began. Daigian was surprised, and had a fatally injured member of the circle to contend with while dealing with Aran'gar. I'd say she did splendidly given the circumstances. Alivia had way more strength than her opponent, and other advantages beside, but was comparatively unskilled.
If this had been the Age of Legends, these exact circles would probably have had way less problems making the Forsaken run. As such, the OP advantages of these circles allowed them to balance the much greater skill of the Forsaken... barely, in some cases.
I have always been a believer in skill v. strength, but knowing how the Aes Sedai system works it seems logical that Cadsuane would have made sure every circle out there had what she would consider sufficient strength (i.e. at least as strong as she was with her angreal) and probably ensured that the least skilled had more strength than she deemed necessary.