Applying the Dual Deficit Model: Do Students’ Test Preparation Strategies Moderate the Relationship between Test Anxiety and Students’ Academic Achievement?

Introduction. Understanding the mechanism through which test anxiety impacts students’ learning outcomes is critical to its management. Test preparation strategies are associated with test confidence and could also affect students’ academic achievement. However, previous studies have underplayed the role students’ test preparation strategies could play in the associations between test anxiety and their academic achievement. Hence, the moderating roles of students’ test preparation strategies on the relationship between test anxiety and students’ academic achievement were explained by framing our study within the dual deficit model. Method. The cross-sectional research design was adopted, and 248 secondary school students constituted the sample. Results. The major findings revealed significant negative relationships between the worry and the cognitive test anxiety subscales and students’ academic achievement scores. Furthermore, there was a joint significant negative relationship between the components of test anxiety and students’ academic achievement, whereas students’ test preparation strategies was not a significant moderator. Discussion and Conclusion. Our findings indicate that learning strategies deficits may not significantly impact the effects of attentional-cognitive deficits on students’ academic achievement. It is concluded that cognitive-attentional deficit could defy strengths that may come from test preparation strategies. © Universidad de Almería and Ilustre Colegio Oficial de la Psicología de Andalucía Oriental (Spain)