Further Reading — Chapter 23

Test-Taking as a Skill: What Exams Actually Measure and How to Prepare

This annotated bibliography provides resources for deeper exploration of the concepts introduced in Chapter 23. Sources are organized by tier following this textbook's citation honesty system.

Tier 1 — Verified Sources

These are well-known, widely available works that the authors are confident exist with the details provided.

Books

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Harvard University Press.

Referenced throughout this textbook, Make It Stick provides the most accessible treatment of the testing effect and retrieval practice as exam preparation strategies. Chapters 2 and 3 are directly relevant to Chapter 23: Chapter 2 covers the testing effect (the foundation of test-enhanced learning), and Chapter 3 addresses the paradox that effective study methods feel harder than ineffective ones — the central paradox this book has traced from Chapter 1. The book's practical advice on using self-testing for exam preparation aligns closely with the retrieval-based test preparation protocol in this chapter.

Carey, B. (2014). How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens. Random House.

Carey's engaging science journalism covers several topics relevant to Chapter 23, including the testing effect, spacing, and the distinction between performance and learning. Chapter 7 ("The Testing Effect") provides a well-written narrative treatment of the research showing that tests function as learning events. The book's accessible style makes it a good starting point for students who want to understand the science behind the exam preparation protocol without reading primary research.

Oakley, B. (2014). A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). TarcherPerigee.

Barbara Oakley's popular book includes practical advice on exam preparation and test-taking strategies for STEM courses. Her treatment of the "focused and diffuse" modes of thinking is relevant to the timing of exam preparation — particularly the recommendation to stop studying the night before and allow sleep to consolidate learning. Her emphasis on practice problems under test conditions (what this chapter calls "practice testing under test conditions") provides additional practical guidance for quantitative disciplines.

Research Articles and Reviews

Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). "Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention." Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255.

The landmark paper on the testing effect, demonstrating that taking a test produces superior long-term retention compared to additional study time. This paper provides the core empirical support for the chapter's central claim that tests are learning events, not just assessments. The experimental design is elegant and the results are striking: students who were tested once remembered more after a week than students who studied the material four times.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). "Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology." Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.

This comprehensive meta-review evaluates ten study strategies and rates practice testing as "high utility" — the highest rating given to any strategy. The review's section on practice testing (pages 35-40) is directly relevant to the retrieval-based test preparation approach in this chapter. The review also addresses distributed practice (relevant to the chapter's emphasis on distributed test preparation) and interleaved practice (relevant to cumulative review). Essential background reading for understanding the evidence base behind the exam preparation protocol.

Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). "Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing." Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659-701.

A comprehensive meta-analysis of 272 comparisons across 118 studies, demonstrating a medium-to-large effect size (0.6) for practice testing across age groups, material types, and test formats. This paper provides the strongest quantitative evidence that practice testing — the foundation of the exam preparation protocol — is a robust and generalizable strategy, not just a laboratory phenomenon.

Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). "Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom." Science, 331(6019), 211-213.

This study, published in Science, demonstrated that students who spent ten minutes writing about their exam-related worries immediately before a high-stakes test performed significantly better than control students — particularly students high in test anxiety. The study provides direct empirical support for the expressive writing technique described in Section 23.2 of this chapter. The finding that a brief, simple intervention can meaningfully reduce the performance impact of test anxiety is both practically important and theoretically interesting.

Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2002). "Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance." Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 270-295.

A foundational paper on the relationship between cognitive test anxiety and academic performance. Cassady and Johnson distinguish between the cognitive component of test anxiety (worried thoughts, negative self-talk, catastrophizing) and the emotional/physiological component (racing heart, sweating, nausea). They demonstrate that the cognitive component is the stronger predictor of performance impairment — supporting the chapter's emphasis on cognitive interventions (arousal reappraisal, expressive writing) over purely physiological ones (deep breathing).

Tier 2 — Attributed Sources

These are findings and claims attributed to specific researchers or research traditions. The general claims are well-established in the literature, but specific publication details beyond what is provided have not been independently verified for this bibliography.

Research by Jeremy Jamieson and colleagues on arousal reappraisal and test performance.

Jamieson's research program has demonstrated that reappraising anxiety-related physiological arousal as facilitative (rather than debilitating) improves performance on standardized tests, public speaking tasks, and academic exams. His work builds on the broader emotion regulation literature, specifically the appraisal theories of emotion, which hold that the same physiological state can produce different emotional experiences depending on cognitive interpretation. Jamieson's findings provide the primary empirical basis for the arousal reappraisal technique described in Section 23.2 of this chapter.

Research by Sian Beilock on choking under pressure and working memory.

Beilock's extensive research at the University of Chicago has explored why high-pressure situations impair performance, particularly for individuals with high working memory capacity. Her work demonstrates that anxiety consumes working memory resources through rumination and threat monitoring, leaving fewer resources available for task performance. This framework — anxiety as a working memory thief — is central to the chapter's explanation of why test anxiety impairs retrieval and reasoning. Her book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To (2010) provides an accessible treatment of this research.

Research by Marilla Svinicki and colleagues on exam wrappers.

The exam wrapper concept has been developed and refined by numerous educational researchers, with significant contributions from Marilla Svinicki and others working in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) tradition. Exam wrappers typically include pre-exam questions about study strategies and confidence, post-exam error analysis, and reflection on what to change for the next exam. Research on their effectiveness suggests that students who complete exam wrappers show improved metacognitive awareness and, in some studies, improved exam performance over the course of a semester.

Research by Robert Bjork and Elizabeth Bjork on the distinction between learning and performance.

The Bjorks' influential framework distinguishes between learning (a relatively permanent change in knowledge or understanding) and performance (a temporary, observable behavior). Their work demonstrates that current performance is an unreliable indicator of current learning — high performance can coexist with shallow learning (as in cramming), and poor performance can coexist with deep learning (as in test anxiety). This distinction, which the Bjorks call the "learning-performance distinction," is the theoretical foundation for Section 23.7's discussion of why exam scores don't always reflect what students actually know.

The Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) on the relationship between arousal and performance.

Robert Yerkes and John Dodson's early research established that the relationship between arousal and task performance follows an inverted-U pattern: performance improves as arousal increases up to a moderate level, then declines as arousal becomes excessive. While the original research was conducted on mice and the inverted-U is a simplification of a more complex reality, the general principle — that moderate arousal facilitates performance while excessive arousal impairs it — is well-supported by subsequent research and provides the theoretical basis for this chapter's approach to test anxiety management.

Tier 3 — General Recommendations

These are practical resources that complement the chapter's content but are not cited as primary sources.

Agarwal, P. K., & Bain, P. M. (2019). Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass.

A practical guide for educators on implementing retrieval practice and other evidence-based strategies in the classroom. Relevant to Chapter 23 because it addresses the testing effect from the instructor's perspective — including how to design tests that function as learning events and how to build low-stakes retrieval practice into daily instruction. Useful for instructors who want to redesign their assessments based on the test-enhanced learning principles in this chapter.

Lang, J. M. (2016). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass.

James Lang's book provides bite-sized, immediately implementable strategies for enhancing learning, including sections on retrieval practice, prediction, and self-explanation. The book's emphasis on small, manageable changes aligns with the incremental approach demonstrated in Mia Chen's arc — changing one or two elements at a time rather than overhauling everything at once.

Nebel, C. (2020). "Exam wrappers" at The Learning Scientists (learningscientists.org).

The Learning Scientists blog provides an accessible introduction to exam wrappers, including downloadable templates. Their treatment of exam wrappers is practical and student-friendly, making it a useful supplement to the more detailed discussion in this chapter. The site also covers retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and other evidence-based strategies discussed throughout this textbook.

Anki (ankiweb.net) — Free, open-source spaced repetition flashcard software.

Referenced also in Chapter 16's further reading, Anki is particularly relevant to this chapter's emphasis on distributed test preparation. Anki's algorithm automatically schedules flashcard reviews at optimal intervals, making it practical to maintain cumulative review across an entire course's worth of material. For students preparing for cumulative exams, Anki's ability to manage hundreds of cards with automated spacing is invaluable.

For Instructors

Lovett, M. C. (2013). "Make exams worth more than the grade." In M. Kaplan, N. Silver, D. LaVaque-Manty, & D. Meizlish (Eds.), Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning. Stylus Publishing.

This chapter provides practical guidance for implementing exam wrappers and post-exam reflection in college courses. Lovett describes how to design exam wrappers, when to assign them, and how to grade (or not grade) them. She also presents data on their effectiveness, showing that students who completed exam wrappers improved their study strategies and exam performance over the course of a semester. Essential reading for instructors who want to implement the post-exam reflection process described in Section 23.6.

Beilock, S. L., & Willingham, D. T. (2014). "Math anxiety: Can teachers help students reduce it?" American Educator, 38(2), 28-32.

While focused specifically on math anxiety, this article's discussion of how evaluative pressure impairs working memory and what instructors can do about it applies broadly to test anxiety across all subjects. Beilock and Willingham provide concrete strategies for reducing the performance impact of anxiety, including the expressive writing intervention and environmental modifications that reduce perceived threat. Useful for instructors who notice students underperforming on exams relative to other assessments.

Bjork, R. A. (2018). "Being suspicious of the sense of ease and undeterred by the sense of difficulty: Looking back at Schmidt and Bjork (1992)." Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(1), 37-46.

A retrospective article in which Robert Bjork reflects on the learning-performance distinction he and Richard Schmidt articulated in their influential 1992 paper. Bjork discusses how the distinction applies to assessment design and why instructors should be cautious about interpreting test performance as a direct measure of learning. Relevant for instructors who want a deeper understanding of the theoretical framework underlying this chapter's treatment of the Learning ≠ Performance theme.