The test-taking expectations scale: Psychometric properties and relations with test anxiety

Abstract

The present research examined the psychometric properties of the Test-Taking Expectations Scale (TTES), an individual difference measure of unrealistic test-taking expectations. The present research also examined the relations among a revised measure and (a) Sarason's (1984) multi-component test-anxiety measure, (b) academic performance as indexed by actual course grades, and (c) verbal ability as indexed by scores on a vocabulary measure. Reliability and factor analyses employing initial and cross-validation samples revealed that four TTES items have low item-total correlations. The revised TTES, compared to the original measure, was found to be internally consistent, more factorially ‘pure’, and strongly correlated with test anxiety, particularly with tension and worry components. Although the revised TTES did not correlate significantly with measures of academic performance and vocabulary ability, regression analyses showed that the test anxiety and vocabulary measures did predict actual academic performance.