Based on a rationale provided by Helson's adaptation level theory it was predicted that students would perceive items arranged in a hard-medium-easy order as being easier than the same items arranged easy-medium-hard. The evidence presented in this study generally confirmed the preceding conjecture, but also found the Ss' perceptions did not significantly influence their scores. That is, using true-false or multiple choice items, Ss' received the same test scores regardless of the context in which they found the items. (Author)