Introduction: Academic stress is a major problem in higher education and can be a risk factor for future academic and mental health problems. Programs to reduce it have focused on psychological interventions (mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc.), ignoring interventions focused on promoting study and learning skills. High academic…

Many students report increasing test anxiety in the months before taking the national social work licensure exam. We evaluate whether adding a test-anxiety-reduction module to an online exam preparation course reduces MSW students' test anxiety. A non-equivalent pretest-posttest control-group design was used to compare 42 students who did not…

First-year seminars that teach foundational academic skills are common in universities around the world, but few studies have been conducted to determine whether the specific skills students develop in these courses transfer to other academic contexts. Our research presents a case study that addresses this gap by measuring students' perceptions of…

This study examined the effects of bottom-up instruction (BI) on a high-stakes listening test for second language (L2) listeners and compared these effects with those of strategy instruction (SI) in relation to their proficiency levels. Two intact classes (48 L2 listeners) of different L2 listening proficiency levels received five weeks of BI and…

Use of high-stakes exams in a course has been associated with gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequities. We investigated whether offering students the opportunity to retake an exam makes high-stakes exams more equitable. Following the control value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that exam retakes would increase students'…

We evaluated whether a synchronous online group intervention, using the Association for Social Work Boards Group Review Practice Test© items, increased students' LMSW licensure test-taking confidence and decreased their test anxiety. A non-equivalent comparison group study was used to measure change in 59 graduate students' confidence in…

Preparing at-risk youth and students with mild disabilities for state and district tests is important for improving their test performance, and basic instruction in test preparation can significantly improve student test performance. The article defines noncognitive variables that adversely affect test-taker performance. The article also describes…

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…

This study examined the effects of being taught the Mayfield's Four Questions multiple-choice test-taking strategy on the perceived self-efficacy and multiple-choice test scores of nursing students in a two-year associate degree program. Experimental and control groups were chosen by stratified random sampling. Subjects completed the 10-statement…

Although much is known about how students perform on standardized tests, little research exists concerning how students think and process while taking such tests. This mixed methods action research study was designed to investigate if a constructivist approach to test preparation could yield improved results for 37 English language arts freshmen…