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Research output: Working paper
Research output: Working paper
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TY - UNPB
T1 - The effect of test anxiety on high stakes exams
T2 - evidence from an RCT using biomarkers
AU - Macrí, Emanuela
AU - Migali, Giuseppe
PY - 2022/11/11
Y1 - 2022/11/11
N2 - We run a randomized control trial in an Italian university to study the effect of test anxiety on a high stakes exam. We separate students in two groups and we expose them to two random treatments, silence and music, that influence their level of pre-test anxiety. We measure the variation of test anxiety by observing the difference in individual biomarkers collected before and after the treatments. We find that a reduction in the mean arterial pressure and systolic pressure improve females test scores, and the effect is much stronger if the treatment is silence. For males we do not find any significant effect. Hence, we conclude that test anxiety may help to explain gender differentials in performance.
AB - We run a randomized control trial in an Italian university to study the effect of test anxiety on a high stakes exam. We separate students in two groups and we expose them to two random treatments, silence and music, that influence their level of pre-test anxiety. We measure the variation of test anxiety by observing the difference in individual biomarkers collected before and after the treatments. We find that a reduction in the mean arterial pressure and systolic pressure improve females test scores, and the effect is much stronger if the treatment is silence. For males we do not find any significant effect. Hence, we conclude that test anxiety may help to explain gender differentials in performance.
KW - Test anxiety
KW - biomarkers
KW - RCT
KW - high stakes exam
KW - gender difference
M3 - Working paper
T3 - Economics Working Papers Series
BT - The effect of test anxiety on high stakes exams
PB - Lancaster University, Department of Economics
CY - Lancaster
ER -