The Relationship between Examinee Anxiety and preference for Self-Adapted Testing

In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that the previously found positive effects of self-adapted testing are attributable to examinees having an increased perception of control over a stressful testing situation. Examinees were randomly assigned to either (a) take a computerized-adaptive test (CAT), (b) take a self-adapted test (SAT), or (c) choose between taking a CAT or SAT. Results showed that the strongest preference for SAT was shown by examinees reporting high levels of math anxiety. Moreover, highly mathanxious examinees who were allowed to choose between the test types exhibited higher mean proficiency estimates than examinees who were assigned to test type.