Factors influencing the performance of handicapped students on the North Carolina Minimum Competency Test (Fall, 1978 administration) were analyzed. Educably mentally handicapped (EMH) and learning disabled (LD) students represented 83% of the 3,043 handicapped students who took the Fall, 1978 test. A questionnaire was designed to collect the following data from random samples of the EMH and LD groups: (1) test modifications employed; (2) history of special education services; and (3) remediation efforts in the Spring for those students who failed the test in the Fall. Only the section on test modifications was used for all other handicaps (i.e., hearing impaired, visually impaired, multiple handicap, and other) in order to determine their relationship to the passage rate. Data on student handicap, race, parent education level, and local school district were obtained from State Department of Public Instruction data tapes. The following conclusions were made: (1) procedures used to classify students as handicapped by local schools were inadequate; (2) better guidelines for the use of test modifications were required; and (3) the student characteristics of ability level, current performance level in reading and math, race, and parent education were related to successful performance on the test. (RL)