2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research paper explores how second-chance testing can be used as a strategy for mitigating students' test anxiety in STEM courses, thereby boosting students' performance and experiences. Second-chance testing is a testing strategy where students are given an opportunity to take an assessment twice. In our work, we investigate how second-chance testing influences students’ anxiety.

Test anxiety is a pervasive and multidimensional problem that often leads to diminished performance. In particular, students' negative cognitive reactions in situations where they are being tested can lead to pronounced drops in achievement. These negative cognitive reactions are often described as cognitive worry in the literature.

We conducted a mixed-methods study to explore second-chance testing as a potential solution to test anxiety. First, we interviewed a diverse group of STEM students (N = 23) who had taken courses with SCT to ask about the stress and anxiety associated with testing. We then administered a survey on test anxiety to STEM students in 7 courses that offered second-chance tests at Midwestern University (N=448).

We found that second-chance testing led to a 30% reduction in students’ test anxiety, a substantial decrease. Students also reported reduced stress throughout the semester, even outside of testing windows, due to the availability of second-chance testing. Our study included courses where second-chance testing was deployed for both formative and summative assessments, which indicates that it is a viable strategy for reducing anxiety in a variety of contexts.

We also explored whether the resultant reduction in test anxiety led to student complacency, encouraged procrastination or other suboptimal student behavior because of the extra chance provided. We found that the majority of students still worked hard on their initial test attempts even when second-chance testing was available. We conclude our paper with recommendations for practice.