We concluded that norm referencing is preferable to criterion referencing, negative marking preferable to number-right marking, a discontinuous scale preferable to a continuous scale and that grades should be weighted to favour the most recent outcomes, although there should still be a degree of persistence (earlier grades should not disappear all together). Grade boundaries should be established with regard to rules on remediation and progression.

This study explores the relationship between students' self-report levels of test anxiety, academic buoyancy (withstanding and successfully responding to routine school challenges and setbacks), coping processes and their achieved grades in high stakes national examinations at the end of compulsory schooling. The sample comprised 325 secondary school students in England. The findings suggest that students who reported greater worry, but lower tension, reported less use of effective pre-exam coping strategies and, in turn, lower examination scores. High academic buoyancy reduced the impact of high worry and low tension on pre-exam coping strategies and lower examination scores. The paper concludes that providing in-school training in coping strategies and how to withstand academic pressures may help to ameliorate the influence of performance-interfering worries, and potentially enhance performance among students inclined to worry about examinations.

Background. Prior research has shown that test anxiety is negatively related to academic buoyancy, but it is not known whether test anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of academic buoyancy. Furthermore, it is not known whether academic buoyancy is related to examination performance.Aims. To test a model specifying reciprocal relations between test anxiety and academic buoyancy and establish whether academic buoyancy is related to examination performance.Sample. 705 students in their final year of secondary education (Year 11).Methods. Self-report data for test anxiety and academic buoyancy were measured in two waves in Year 11. Examination performance was taken from the mean English, mathematics and science scores from the high-stakes General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations taken at the end of Year 11.Results. Measurement invariance was demonstrated for test anxiety and academic buoyancy across both waves of measurement. The model for the worry component of test anxiety showed reciprocal relations with academic buoyancy. Worry predicted lower mean GCSE score and academic buoyancy predicted a higher mean GCSE score. The model for the tension component of test anxiety showed that higher buoyancy was related to lower tension and academic buoyancy predicted a higher mean GCSE score. Tension was unrelated to future academic buoyancy and did not predict mean GCSE score. Conclusion. Academic buoyancy protects against the appraisal of examinations asthreatening by influencing self-regulative processes and enables better examination performance. Worry, but not tension, shows a negative feedback loop to academic buoyancy.Keywords. Test anxiety, worry, tension, academic buoyancy, examination performance 2 Academically buoyant students are less anxious about and perform better in high-stakes examinations Introduction High-stakes examinations have important consequences for students, teachers and schools. Results are used to inform educational decisions about students and influence the subsequent life trajectory of students (Heubert & Hauser, 1999; Segool, von der Embse, Mata, & Gallant, 2014). More recently, results have been used in both the UK and elsewhere in accountability policy reforms to judge school and teacher effectiveness and, in some cases, pay and tenure (Koretz & Hamilton, 2006; Hanushek & Raymond, 2005). Students differ widely in the way that they approach and respond to the pressure posed by high-stakes examinations. Some students thrive under such pressure, some seem relatively unbothered by it, whereas others seem to choke (e.g., Barksdale-Ladd & Thomas, 2000; von der Embse & Hasson, 2012; Wang & Shah, 2013). Understanding the factors that influence students' responses to examination pressure and performance on high-stakes examinations is of interest to a wide variety of educational professionals including teachers, school managers, educational and school psychologists.In this study we examine two salient individual differences variables in students' performance in the General C...

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This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a multimodal and information technology (IT)-delivered intervention for test anxiety. Participants were randomly allocated to an intervention or waiting list group. Test anxiety was measured pre-and post-intervention and academic buoyancy, a construct that refers to students' capacity to withstand academic challenge and pressure, as a covariate. In the intervention group, 13.7% of participants completed the full intervention programme comprising six sessions; 25.5% partially completed the programme (one or more sessions); and 60.8% of participants chose not to complete any sessions. Results showed that, after completing the intervention and when controlling for academic buoyancy, highly test anxious students showed a reduction in the worry and tension components of test anxiety, relative to those who did not complete the intervention. The findings suggest that the intervention may offer highly test anxious students a means of reducing their anxiety that does not rely on face-to-face delivery.