Test anxiety and the curriculum: The subject matters

We hypothesized that students' perceptions of a subject's difficulty were correlated positively with their levels of test anxiety in that subject. Further, we assumed students would report greater test anxiety when they believed mastery of a subject demanded precise answers on tests, rather than a general understanding of the course content. We compared college students' self-reported test anxiety levels in four traditional academic subjects: English, mathematics, physical science, and social science. Participants were predominantly African American, Hispanic, and Asian American. Test anxiety scores and perceptions of subject matter difficulty were related, independent of the particular subject and the test demands. Physical science elicited the highest levels of self-reported evaluative anxiety, after controlling for perceptions of difficulty and test demands. Effects for test demand instructions were not significant. The importance of subject matter in test anxiety and the significance of the role of test anxiety in impeding science achievement are discussed.