Sep 23, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
In this episode of The Science of Learning, Mike Hobbiss joins us to explore test anxiety and how it can affect students’ experiences and performance in school. We discuss the research behind test…
Mike HobbissGuest
Bradley BuschHost
Okay, so let's unpack through these three studies, some of the costs and consequences of test anxiety, but also to strike a more optimistic note, what does the research say about what strategies might help
On study one, by Yang et al, 2023, looked at basically do practice tests, quizzes, retrieval, do they reduce or do they provoke test anxiety? Hmm.
For people who are new to this area of research, I think this sounds quite counterintuitive.
So we always have this idea of the phrase, you know, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it more.
And if you're nervous about a test, surely more tests and quizzes are going to make you more stressed.
But the researchers found in this particular site, they said actually the act of doing this retrieval, this quizzing, probably quite low stakes, I imagine, seemed to really help.
And this is where I quite like psychology and your thoughts on this is no one ever for sure knows why.
So I thought I'd see which of the two you thought... you think might have more impact, if you had to guess? Because we don't know.
So the first thing as to why these practice tests might help reduce test anxiety is they talked about enhanced learning.
So essentially, retrieval consistently is really good for accelerating and embedding learning.
And so therefore, if people know more stuff, they'll probably be less nervous about the test where they get quizzed on that stuff.
And then the other one they talked about reducing uncertainty So we understand the rules of the game.
And we know one of the things that really stresses people out is lack of control and is uncertainty.
Okay, so let's unpack through these three studies, some of the costs and consequences of test anxiety, but also to strike a more optimistic note, what does the research say about what strategies might help
On study one, by Yang et al, 2023, looked at basically do practice tests, quizzes, retrieval, do they reduce or do they provoke test anxiety? Hmm.
For people who are new to this area of research, I think this sounds quite counterintuitive.
So we always have this idea of the phrase, you know, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it more.
And if you're nervous about a test, surely more tests and quizzes are going to make you more stressed.
But the researchers found in this particular site, they said actually the act of doing this retrieval, this quizzing, probably quite low stakes, I imagine, seemed to really help.
And this is where I quite like psychology and your thoughts on this is no one ever for sure knows why.
So I thought I'd see which of the two you thought... you think might have more impact, if you had to guess? Because we don't know.
So the first thing as to why these practice tests might help reduce test anxiety is they talked about enhanced learning.
So essentially, retrieval consistently is really good for accelerating and embedding learning.
And so therefore, if people know more stuff, they'll probably be less nervous about the test where they get quizzed on that stuff.
And then the other one they talked about reducing uncertainty So we understand the rules of the game.
And we know one of the things that really stresses people out is lack of control and is uncertainty.
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