Westside Test Anxiety Scale 

ü     Focuses strongly on performance impairments, with 6 of 10 items specifically about performance problems.

ü     Assesses worry, which impairs performance, but does not dwell on physiological arousal, which is only loosely related to performance. 

ü     Is quick to administer and easily scored by the students themselves.

ü      Includes instructions to help students understand their scores.

ü     Is public access, from AMTAA.ORG, and can be downloaded and used with no charge to your school. 

 ü   Scale changes are found to be closely related to grade changes, suggesting that the scale is a highly sensitive register of anxiety impairments.   See Validation. 

o      Items are all scored positive, making the scale easy to score but also vulnerable to bias by extreme answers 

o      While the scale is relatively new, it does identify about 18% of students as highly anxious, which is the national norm, and it is being used in several ongoing research projects.  

View or download the Westside Scale 

ã2004 by Richard Driscoll, Ph.D.  You have permission to reprint the Westside scale, and to use it personally or in school and university settings.  Please include copyright, author, and web address:  www.amtaa.org/scaleWestside.html