Research on Test Anxiety in CET-4 of Non-English Major Freshmen

Test anxiety, which means individuals show excessive worry, nervousness and anxiety in examination contexts, is becoming a more and more common phenomenon. A moderate level of test anxiety will motivate students while a too high or too low level of test anxiety will influence students’ academic performance and their cognitive abilities. Most present researches are focused on secondary school students or on the final exam of a specific school. Few researches on college students and standard tests can be found. Therefore, the researcher took 255 non-English major freshmen as samples to investigate their test anxiety level, their attitudes towards different test tasks (ATDTT) in CET-4 and the correlation between them. The results of the research are as follows: Firstly, the non-English major freshmen are at the lower of a moderate test anxiety level in CET-4 and there is no significant gender difference. Secondly, among the four sections in CET-4, students are most positive in writing, less positive in translation and reading, and the least positive in listening. Thirdly, students’ ATDTT in CET-4 are negatively correlated with total test anxiety, cognitive anxiety and emotional anxiety. The researcher hopes this research can offer some help to teachers and students in need.