The Moderating Effects of Item Order Arranged by Difficulty on the Relationship between Test Anxiety and Test Performance

Abstract

Taking cultural knowledge tests as the case study, this research carries out a series of empirical investigations to verify the moderating effects of item order arranged by difficulty on the relationship between test anxiety and test performance. Groups classified according to test anxiety take tests with two major types of item order: item order arranged according to item bank calibrated item difficulty and item order adjusted according to individual examinee’s perceived item difficulty. The means of those test results are compared between groups to see whether the differences are significant. The investigations obtain the following findings: the higher the test taker’s level of test anxiety, the higher significance of the moderating effects and vice versa; item order adjusted according to individual examinee’s perceived item difficulty may have a more significant moderating effect than item order arranged according to item bank calibrated item difficulty has.