Assessment via tests and examinations may be viewed as burdensome, coercive, and irrelevant by gifted students. Teachers can help students overcome negative attitudes toward assessment by: assessing students' best (as opposed to typical) efforts; involving students in planning and developing the assessment program; and providing specific,…

Investigated the cognitions of low, moderate, and high test-anxious children under naturalistic test-taking conditions and examined the role of classroom environment in the test anxiety-performance relation. Results indicated high test-anxious children showed more task-debilitating cognitions during testing, including more negative…

Examined the effects of endemic images on levels of anxiety and achievement of 48 high school students. Results suggested that a combination of endemic images and study skills training was as effective as desensitization plus study skills training. Includes the endemic image questionnaire. (JAC)

A study examined anxiety and its effects on the notetaking behavior and subsequent test performance of 87 high school students. Alpert and Haber's Achievement Anxiety Test was used to classify students as to level of facilitative or debilitative anxiety before treatment. Results showed that anxiety was not necessarily detrimental to performance.…

Examined answer changing on an eighth-grade aggregate science achievement test by race and sex in relation to test anxiety. No sex differences in answer changing were noted. Black students made significantly more total changes. Significantly higher test anxiety scores were found for Black and female students. (JAC)

Offers tips on how to prepare for test taking, including taking notes, reading textbooks, reviewing, and approaching the test with a positive attitude. (FL)

Assessed clinically test anxious students (N=14) who had been administered a treatment program consisting of relaxation skill training, cognitive restructuring and systematic desensitization. Results indicated a maintenance of decreased levels of test anxiety and continued reductions in trait anxiety and irrationality at a 12-month follow-up. (LLL)

This paper looked at the experience that college students have when taking exams. The sample population was made up of students completing their first exam of the semester. The study was designed to offer research-based support on how to help students improve their performance on multiple-choice exams. Student perceptions of the number of items…

Compared the cognitions of low, moderate, and high test-anxious children (N=398) in an analogue test situation. High test-anxious children reported significantly more task-debilitating cognitions, including negative evaluations and off-task thoughts, and fewer positive evaluations, than the other children. (WAS)

Three students' concerns about testing range from the conditions under which tests are taken to what tests actually measure, to the personal sacrifices high school students must make to take nationally administered examinations. (Author/CM)

Investigated whether certain early experiences could explain differences in adults' test anxiety, achievement motivation, and fear of success. These antecedent variables yielded five factors. Multiple regression analyses using these factors as predictors were not significant for achievement motivation or fear of success, but were significant for…

Studied (N=40) educably mentally retarded students in an experimental group who were verbally praised after responses to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised). Scaled scores for five of eleven subtests, in addition to the Verbal, Performance and Full Scale indices, were significantly greater under the experimental procedure.…

Measured subjective work load, time urgency, and other stress/motivation variables for management personnel taking a demanding problem-solving exam. Data suggest increases in psychological stresses like subjectively high work load and time urgency uniformly impair performance across the whole range of these variables. (Author)

This investigation assesses the relative efficacy of three intervention strategies for reducing mathematics anxiety and enhancing mathematics performance in college students. Findings suggest that the cue-controlled relaxation technique is a potentially viable intervention. (Author/AL)

Studied effects of anxiety and sex on neuropsychological test performance. Right-handed subjects responded to the Finger Tapping (FT), Form Board (FB), and State-Trait Anxiety tests. Females performed significantly slower on the FT than males, and for females, trait anxiety was negatively correlated with FT performance and positively correlated…