Relation of test-specific motivation and anxiety to test performance.

The relations between consequence of test scores and motivation, anxiety, and test performance were studied with 112 persons in four undergraduate educational psychology courses. Students were given two versions of an hourly course examination that varied in consequence, with one counting for part of their grade and the other not counting. Each student completed the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory prior to taking the examination. Afterwards students completed a measure of test anxiety and test motivation specific to the examination they had just taken. Significant main effects were found for consequence of test with scores for test anxiety, test performance, and test motivation. Also, the subscales showed a consistent pattern of relations with test performance and test anxiety across the two conditions, but not for test motivation for which few relations were found under the condition with no consequence.