Predicting self-efficacy in test preparation: Gender,value, anxiety,test performance,and strategies

Considerable evidence indicates that self-efficacy, task value, anxiety, and the use of language learning strategies are related. However, there is currently an insufficient understanding about their relations in high-stakes testing contexts. The author aimed to investigate how well social factors, test value, anxiety, test performance, and learning strategies predict high school students' self-efficacy in preparing for the English listening test as part of the University Entrance Examination in Taiwan. This research involved a large-scale questionnaire survey and a collection of students' English test scores. The participants were 636 students in Grade 12 of high school in Taiwan. A quantitative analysis of the questionnaire was conducted via hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that students' recent English test performance and test anxiety were two strong predictors of self-efficacy in preparing for the high-stakes test. In addition, resource management and metacognitive listening strategies had better predictive power over prior English level and test value.     

A comparison of the peabody individual achievement test,the metropolitan achievement test,and the otis-lennon mental ability test

In order to clarify the concurrent validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) and the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT), product-moment correlations were computed for all subscores and total scores for 26 normal-range public school third-grade girls and boys. The reading comprehension subtests correlated.81, spelling.88, and PIAT Mathematics with MAT Total Math.64. Correlations were computed for the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test and the PIAT General Information subtest as.77, and the Otis-Lennon and the PIAT Total Test scores as.79. Concurrent validity of the PIAT with both tests is tentatively considered adequate except in the area of mathematics, in which the PIAT, relative to the MAT, appears to be reflecting ability to handle math concepts (.68) more accurately than math computation (.41) or math problem solving (.56). Correlations with IQ partialed out suggest the PIAT Total Test, and PIAT and MAT reading and spelling measures, are relatively uninfluenced by IQ variations, whereas with IQ held constant, the weak positive correlations between the PIAT and MAT math subtests became essentially random relationships.     

Test anxiety, perceived test difficulty, and test performance: temporal patterns of their effects

Two hypothesized models that represent relationships among test anxiety, perceived test difficulty, and test performance observed immediately before and after a final examination were tested. The structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized relationships by imposing the structure of direct and indirect effects on the current data collected from 208 undergraduate students. Students' perception of test difficulty had a significant effect on the arousal of both worry and emotionality. Temporal changes were observed in the degrees of these relationships; while test difficulty perceived before and during the exam both had effects on test anxiety perceived at each corresponding time, students' perception of test difficulty during the exam had a greater direct effect on the arousal of test anxiety than did test difficulty perceived before the exam. Worry, but not emotionality, had a strong inverse relationship with performance. That perceived test difficulty did not have a direct effect on test performance, but had an indirect effect mediated by worry, indicates that test performance was not directly influenced by how they perceive the test difficulty, but worry aroused by the difficulty perception influenced their performance. Importance of understanding students' perceived test difficulty was discussed for its effect on arousing worry anxiety.     

Validating test score meaning and defending test score use: different aims,different methods

Advances in validity theory and alacrity in validation practice have suffered because the term validity has been used to refer to two incompatible concerns: (1) the degree of support for specified interpretations of test scores (i.e. intended score meaning) and (2) the degree of support for specified applications (i.e. intended test uses). This article provides a brief summary of current validity theory, explication of a critical flaw in the current conceptualisation of validity, and a framework that both accommodates and differentiates validation of test score inferences and justification of test use.     

Ethnicity,test anxiety and science achievement in Nigerian students

Abstract

This study investigated ethnic and gender differences in test anxiety and achievement test performances of Nigerian junior secondary school students. The sample consisted of 100 Ibibio, 100 Yoruba and 100 Tiv students randomly drawn from four rural schools in each ethnic zone. Each sample consisted of 50 male and 50 female students, between the ages of 11 and 16. Two research instruments, a test anxiety scale and an integrated science multiple‐choice test, were used, Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that: (i) there were significant ethnic and gender effects on the test anxiety and achievement test performance of the students; (ii) there was significant negative correlation between test anxiety and achievement test performances for the ethnic and gender groups of the students, except for the Yoruba female students who had insignificant negative correlation for the two variables. The significant negative correlation remained when the effects of gender and ethnicity were statistically controlled; (iii) test anxiety was affected by the inter‐active effects of gender and ethnicity; (iv) achievement test performance was affected by gender, ethnicity and test anxiety, and their interactive effects.     

The AVOM: A model-derived,age-limited,and modality-related test of intellectual functioning

The current status of intellectual assessment is reviewed. Traditional psychometric techniques are criticized for yielding only a single score that purports to measure the individual's intellectual ability. Such a unified score gives no indication of what specific deficit is present, nor does it suggest a strategy for remediation. The AVOM Test is presented as a potentially useful device. This experimental test measures performance in two input channels, auditory and visual, and two output channels, oral and manual. AVOM was administered to over 200 elementary school students. Scores increased with age, and the other results were supportive of the potential utility of the device.     

Taste-sickness associations in young rats over varying delays,stimulus, and test conditions

We showed, as had previous investigators, that young rats formed taste-sickness associations that were weaker than those of mature rats; associations were not formed over a delay greater than 45 min, and aversions did not survive a 60-min test session. The difficulty young rats had withholding consumption and their poor sensitivity to taste and sickness contributed to the weak aversions. Choice tests revealed aversions that had apparently extinguished during a no-choice test, and animals that were allowed to mature prior to the first test readily withheld consumption for 60 min. Furthermore, young rats formed an aversion over a delay of 2.5 h when the concentrations of saccharin and lithium chloride were increased. Aversions to the stronger saccharin did not extinguish over two one-bottle tests and were retained for 52 days.     

特殊的面试

这是一则真实的故事:表弟从西南财经大学毕业后,为工作四处奔波,忙得焦头烂额时,看到某公司的招聘广告.广告上要求对方只要是大专文凭,年龄在35岁以下即可,并留了公司地址供应聘者联系.     

Attachment,self-esteem and test anxiety in adolescence and early adulthood

The purpose of this study was to assess how attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance), self-esteem, and three subscales of test anxiety – cognitive obstruction, social derogation and tenseness are related in two age groups: adolescents and college students. Participants (N?=?327) completed relevant questionnaires. Results showed that college students revealed higher test anxiety than did high school students on the cognitive obstruction and tenseness scales, whereas high school students revealed higher social derogation than college students. Anxious attachment was related to all three sub-scales of test anxiety and avoidant attachment was related to cognitive obstruction among college students and to tenseness among high school students. Most of the correlations between anxious attachment and test anxiety were mediated by self-esteem among high school students. The mediation ability of self-esteem was weaker among college students.     

Effects of test anxiety on performance,worry, and emotionality in naturally occurring exams

Test performance and reported anxiety levels of high and low test-anxious subjects taking either a regular exam or an exam containing brief, written relaxation instructions were compared. A consistent main effect for test anxiety was found; high test-anxious subjects performed more poorly and reported greater worry and emotionality than did low test-anxious subjects. Effects for the relaxation manipulation were found only on the second of three exams where the high anxious subjects receiving the relaxation exam format reported less worry than the high anxiety-regular exam group. Results provide greater external validity for the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS).     

Structural relationship between learners’ perceptions of a test,learning practices,and learning outcomes: A study on the washback mechanism of a high-stakes test

The study aimed to explore the washback mechanism on learning by investigating the structural relationship between learners’ perceptions of a test, learning practices, and learning outcomes via structural equation modeling. The participants in this study included 3105 Chinese senior high school students. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used in the analyses of the data. This study found that learners’ perceptions of test validity, impact, and importance affected their learning practices in different ways and to different degrees. The research results also showed that four types of English learning practices had significant, positive, but differential effects on learning outcomes. The effect size was partly associated with the frequency of engagement with each learning practice. Based on the findings, some implications and suggestions were drawn for learners, teachers, test designers, and test authorities.     

考试系统组卷算法的分析与应用

在教学过程中,老师们需要不定时的检查教学质量,以便随时修改教学计划,同时还需要检查同学们对教学内容的掌握程度,方便老师对不同学生进行不同的指导。因此,学校会举行大大小小的考试,而考试的一项核心功能就是组卷。随着信息科技的不断发展,考试系统的组卷已经越来越普遍。本文就是针对这种网络上的智能组卷进行分析的。     

Academic self-concept, interest, grades, and standardized test scores: reciprocal effects models of causal ordering

Reciprocal effects models of longitudinal data show that academic self-concept is both a cause and an effect of achievement. In this study this model was extended to juxtapose self-concept with academic interest. Based on longitudinal data from 2 nationally representative samples of German 7th-grade students (Study 1: N = 5,649, M age = 13.4; Study 2: N = 2,264, M age = 13.7 years), prior self-concept significantly affected subsequent math interest, school grades, and standardized test scores, whereas prior math interest had only a small effect on subsequent math self-concept. Despite stereotypic gender differences in means, linkages relating these constructs were invariant over gender. These results demonstrate the positive effects of academic self-concept on a variety of academic outcomes and integrate self-concept with the developmental motivation literature.