Student Perceptions of the Effects of Test Delays
research and study about what to test, how to test, and what testing does to college students (e.g., test anxiety), very liule research addresses the effect of test delays on college students. In fact, a review of the literature on testing delays turned up topics of procrastinators and testing (Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986), placing an intentional delay between teaching and testing (Hobbs, 1976; Ouo & Rarick, 1968), and even the effects of delaying entrance into college, i.e., the nontraditional student (Brawer, 1973; Faming & Borden, 1978). The present article addresses the effects of unintentional test delays from the students' perspective. On two occasions my midterm examination (in different classes) had to be canceled and rescheduled in some way due an unforeseeable event. During the spring 1989 semester I taught Introduction to Psychology at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. With over 1000 students in this freshman level course, half were enrolled in my lecture sections, and 514 students completed the end of semester evaluation. On the evening of the midterm examination, a bomb threat was received by campus police and the exam was STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF THE EFFECTS . OF TEST DELAYS