This study investigated the nature of affective reactions of college students in a real-life testing situation, and the relationship of these affects to causal attributions and perceptions of success or failure. Ninety students responded to questions concerning their emotions after receiving results of an examination and indicated the contribution of four causal factors (effort, ability, task difficulty, and luck) as reasons for their success or failure. Principal component analyses of 14 affects resulted in two factors: (1) general happiness, pride, and satisfaction; and (2) surprise. Regression analyses indicated that perception of success or failure accounted for a very high proportion of the variance, although internal causal attributions were related to positive affect. A procedure for analyzing attributions as patterns rather than singular factors is presented. (Author)