Self-Efficacy, Test Anxiety, and Self-Reported Test-Taking Ability: How Do They Differ between High- and Low-Achieving Students?

The purpose of this study was to compare high- and low-achieving undergraduate college students on selfefficacy, test anxiety, and self-reported test-taking ability. Eighty students from 2 sections of educational psychology course participated in the study; complete data were collected for 76 students. Before taking their first exam, students answered 1 question about their test-taking ability and 2 subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Students who scored 0.5 SD higher than the overall mean of their 5 multiple-choice examinations were identified as high-achieving (n = 25), and those students who scored lower than -0.5 SD as low-achieving (n = 20). Statistically significant differences were observed between high-achieving and low-achieving students on self-efficacy and test-taking ability, but not on test anxiety. These results have implications for better understanding how self-reported factors associated with achievement do or do not differ based on actual achievement. Keywords: self-efficacy, test anxiety, test-taking ability, college students