Test Anxiety

Book excerpt: Examination stress and test anxiety are pervasive problems in modern society. As the information age continues to evolve, test scores will become even more important than they are today in evaluating applicants for demanding jobs and candidates for admission into highly competitive educational programs. Because test anxiety gen- ally causes decrements in performance and undermines academic achievement, the development of effective therapeutic interventions for reducing its adverse effects will continue to be an important priority for counselors, psychologists, and educators. Alleviating test anxiety will also serve to counteract the diminished access to edu- tional and occupational opportunities that is frequently experienced by test-anxious individuals. As its title promises, this volume provides a state-of-the-art evaluation of the nature, antecedents, correlates, and consequences of examination stress and test anxiety. Professor Zeidner’s cogent and comprehensive analysis of the affective, cognitive, somatic, and behavioral manifestations of test anxiety are grounded in the extensive knowledge he has gained from his own research on the assessment and treatment of test anxiety. This work has also benefitted from the author’s lo- standing and productive collaboration with leading contributors to test anxiety theory and research, and his active participation in national and international conferences devoted to understanding test anxiety, including those convened by the Society for Test Anxiety Research (STAR).