Test Anxiety and Standardized Achievement Test Performance in the Middle School Years

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Crocker ◽  
Alicia Schmitt ◽  
Linda Tang
Author(s):  
Frieder L. Schillinger ◽  
Jochen A. Mosbacher ◽  
Clemens Brunner ◽  
Stephan E. Vogel ◽  
Roland H. Grabner

AbstractThe inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students’ tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence. In this study, we compare different facets of test anxiety in predicting test performance. Seven hundred thirty university students filled out the German Test Anxiety Inventory after completing a battery of standardized tests assessing general intelligence and mathematical competencies. Multiple regressions revealed that interference and lack of confidence but not worry or arousal explained unique variance in students’ test performance. No evidence was found for a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance. The present results call for revisiting the role of worries in explaining the test anxiety-performance link and can help educators to identify students who are especially at risk of underperforming on tests.


2008 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 497-506
Author(s):  
P. S. B. Sarma

The purpose of the study was to replicate findings of an earlier study of fourth grade boys manifesting mixed handedness with a sample. Among 32 mixed-handed boys in Grades 6 to 8, the right-handed writer, left-handed thrower group obtained low spelling scores (Normal Curve Equivalent Scores) on the California Achievement Test significantly more frequently than the left-handed writer, right-handed thrower group. These findings are consistent with data for Grade 4 boys in the earlier study. Findings strengthen the hypotheses that mixed handedness is not a unitary neuropsychological entity and that boys who write with the right hand and throw with the left hand might be at risk for certain academic deficits.


1974 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Campbell

A total of 484 tenth-grade students, evenly divided between schools with Commonwealth libraries and those without, were assessed for motivational dispositions (need for achievement, test anxiety, and sense of responsibility for successes and failures), academic values, and displayed motivation (as revealed in choice of tasks). The two groups of students did not differ with respect to dispositions and values, but those from schools with Commonwealth libraries showed greater motivation. This finding is interpreted as evidence that the effects of improved library facilities have now seeped through teaching and learning strategies to an important outcome in students.


2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Garn ◽  
Haichun Sun

The use of fitness testing is a practical means for measuring components of health-related fitness, but there is currently substantial debate over the motivating effects of these tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the cross-fertilization of achievement and friendship goal profiles for early adolescents involved in the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER). Participants were 214 middle school students who reported their achievement goals, social goals, and preparation effort toward a PACER test. Performance was also examined. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-factor approach–avoidance model. Cluster analysis highlighted three distinct profiles. The high-goals profile group reported significantly higher amounts of effort put forth in preparation for the PACER test. Our findings suggest that the cross-fertilization of approach and avoidance achievement and social goals can provide important information about effort and performance on fitness testing in middle school physical education.


2003 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Oostdam ◽  
Joost Meijer

In this study a measurement model for a test anxiety questionnaire was investigated in a sample of 207 Dutch students in the first grade of junior secondary vocational education. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that a model for test anxiety with three factors for worry, emotionality, and lack of self-confidence is associated with a significantly better fit than a model comprised of only the first two factors. The relations of the three test anxiety factors to scores on intelligence tests for measuring verbal ability, reasoning, and spatial ability were examined. The results indicated that test anxiety appears to be transitory: the negative relation between test anxiety and test performance promptly fades away. Finally, we examined whether a distinction can be made between highly test anxious students with low performance due to worrisome thoughts (interference hypothesis) or low ability (deficit hypothesis). Results do not support the deficit hypothesis because the scores of all highly test anxious students increased in a less stressful situation.


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