Students who experience mathematics anxiety have long been suggested to engage in avoidance behaviors that negatively impact their mathematics performance. However, little is known about how these avoidance behaviors manifest for highly anxious students within the context of a mathematics course. Since the use of effortful study strategies has…

How is it possible to create and continuously improve a quality learning environment for our students? We present our one-year course on engineering thermodynamics as a case study in which we investigate the learning environment based on a competency model from the students' perspective. Based on the analysis of our course structure and exam…

Postsecondary education has undergone dramatic changes in the past 30 years or so. When I began teaching at the college level in the mid-1980s I went to class clutching my scribbled notes and a piece of chalk. If I scheduled it well in advance, a few times each semester I could have someone wheel in an overhead or film projector. Students typed…

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine if there were differences in note-taking and test-taking in students with and without ADHD, and if there were, to examine the cognitive variables that might explain them. Participants included 22 postsecondary students with self-reported ADHD and 50 postsecondary student controls. Students…

Students often gauge their performance before and after an exam, usually in the form of rough grade estimates or general feelings. Are these estimates accurate? Should they form the basis for decisions about study time, test-taking strategies, revisions, subject mastery, or even general competence? In two studies, undergraduates took a real…

It has been a concern among educators and academics that U.S. students suffer from a lack of knowledge about the world around them. This is reflected in low history scores, particularly in world history. The common explanation for this is that there is some systematic deficiency in American students, in that they either do not know the material or…

This quasi-experimental study reports on the effectiveness of three assessment strategies for students' performance. The primary goal was to determine whether there are any improvements in students' conceptual learning when a frequent (weekly) quiz is used for grading purposes compared to using midterm and final examinations only. Another goal was…

Student academic success in school demands acquisition of specific skill sets that emphasize self-assessment, monitoring, adjustment, self-control, and motivation; the courage and ability to adopt efficient learning strategies; and resiliency in case of academic difficulties. As hypothesized, data from the present study demonstrates that student…

The Advanced Placement Psychology exam is one of the fastest growing exams offered by the College Board. The average percent of change in the number of students taking this exam over the past five years is 12.4%. With 238,962 students taking the exam in 2013, the AP Psychology exam is the sixth largest exam, surpassing AP Biology and AP World…

Although end of course exams remain a key mode of assessment in higher education, little research has focused on international students' experiences of exams. There seems to be a tacit assumption in most literature that exam preparation and strategies are universal, although differences in other areas of learning exist. As an exemplar, this…

Perception about testing and preparation to take a test is usually actualized in what the students do before, during, and after testing. This research involves 50 students and 17 lecturers as respondents, and uses structured questionnaire as its instrument. The results of the analysis show that: 1) the test-taking strategy used by the students of…

Examinee effort can impact the validity of scores on higher education assessments. Many studies of examinee effort have briefly noted gender differences, but gender differences in test-taking effort have not been a primary focus of research. This review of the literature brings together gender-related findings regarding three measures of examinee…

We examined test-expectancy as it applies to fill-in-the-blank tests. We randomly assigned 60 college students to take a fill-in-the-blank vocabulary test in one of three conditions. Two groups took the test with a word bank available; we told one group but not the other that they would have a word bank. The third group took the test with no word…

The use of one specific ego-enhancing hypnotic approach, a technique that employs a conditioned "trigger," the clenched fist, to facilitate the changing of troublesome emotional states, is described. Forty first-year university students were the subjects of the study. (MLW)

This paper looked at the experience that college students have when taking exams. The sample population was made up of students completing their first exam of the semester. The study was designed to offer research-based support on how to help students improve their performance on multiple-choice exams. Student perceptions of the number of items…