Test anxiety in written and oral examinations

The distinction of different test anxiety reactions (e.g., worry, emotionality) is well established. Recently, additional relevance has been given to school-subject-specific test anxiety factors. The present study explored a further aspect concerning the structure of test anxiety experiences, specifically oral versus written examination modes. A questionnaire was administered to 682 high school students (grades 9 to 10) in which three aspects were systematically combined: different test anxiety factors (worry, emotionality), school-subjects (mathematics, German), and examination modes (written, oral). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a structure with eight school-subject-specific and examination-mode-specific test anxiety factors. Differential relationships revealed evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of these eight specific test anxiety factors with two test anxiety initiating conditions (recitation situations, lack of knowledge).

► Different examination modes (written, oral) structure test anxiety experiences. ► School subject- and examination mode specific test anxiety factors are confirmed. ► A systematic pattern of the correlations of the specific test anxiety factors is shown. ► Specific test anxiety factors correlate differentially with other variables.