This study was undertaken to replicate prior research in which a brief counter-conditioning and confidence training program was found to reduce anxiety and raise test scores. First-semester college students were screened with the Westside Test Anxiety Scale, and the 25 identified as having high or moderately-high anxiety were randomly divided…

This study was undertaken to replicate prior findings in which a test-anxiety control training produced substantial test gains among students on academic probation. Twelve first semester students with marginal achievement were identified, screened for test anxiety, and found to have substantially higher anxiety than other students. Ten of the…

Nursing programs can be highly stressful, and the investigation was undertaken to see if nursing students are more test anxious than students in other fields. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale has administered to 298 nursing students at two colleges, and to a comparison group of 471 high school and college students. Fully 30% of nursing students…

Nursing programs can be highly stressful, and nursing students have been found to be more test-anxious than other students. The present investigation examines a practical program to reduce test-anxiety impairment and improve academic performance for a significant number of highly anxious nursing students. Incoming nursing students were screened…

Given the high incidence of test-anxiety impairment and the need to treat more students, the study was undertaken to assess a group-administered intervention requiring a minimum of staff hours. An "active control" training was used which has been shown to provide strong anxiety reduction and respectable test score gains in prior studies. The…

The Westside Test Anxiety Scale is a brief, ten item instrument designed to identify students with anxiety impairments who could benefit from an anxiety-reduction intervention. The scale items cover self-assessed anxiety impairment and cognitions which can impair performance. Correlations between anxiety-reduction as measured by the scale and…

The study evaluates an easily-administered test-anxiety reduction program. An entire fifth grade was screened, and 36 students identified as test-anxious were randomly assigned to an Intervention or a non-participant Control group. The intervention was an accelerated desensitization and adaptive attitudes (ADAA) treatment which involved…

An anxiety desensitization method is presented which counters over-arousal through strenuous muscle stretch-tense, deep breath, release-relax and positive suggestion sequences; and uses positive adaptive images to replace negative cognitions and to promote confidence. The addition of the stretch-tense and positive images components are expected to…

The study evaluates the test-gain benefits of an accelerated desensitization and adaptive attitudes intervention for test-anxious students. College students were screened for high test anxiety. Twenty anxious students, half of them on academic probation, were assigned to an Intervention or to a minimal treatment Control group. The Intervention was…

The presentation covers information on test anxiety reduction strategies from over thirty years of experience with clients of a variety of ages. Dr. Ross is from the College of Lake County. Dr. Driscoll is a private practitioner and Director of the American Test Anxieties Association. The purpose is to address age appropriate test anxiety…