The inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students’ tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence. In this study, we compare different facets of test anxiety in predicting test performance. Seven hundred thirty university students filled out the German Test Anxiety Inventory after completing a battery of standardized tests assessing general intelligence and mathematical competencies. Multiple regressions revealed that interference and lack of confidence but not worry or arousal explained unique variance in students’ test performance. No evidence was found for a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance. The present results call for revisiting the role of worries in explaining the test anxiety-performance link and can help educators to identify students who are especially at risk of underperforming on tests.

考试焦虑和考试成绩之间的反比关系通常可以用考试焦虑学生担心考试和失败后果的倾向来解释。然而，已经确定了考试焦虑的其他认知方面可以解释这种联系，包括与考试无关的想法的干扰和缺乏信心。在这项研究中，我们比较了考试焦虑在预测考试成绩方面的不同方面。在完成一系列评估一般智力和数学能力的标准化测试后，730 名大学生填写了德国考试焦虑量表。多元回归显示干扰和缺乏信心，但不担心或唤醒解释了学生考试成绩的独特差异。没有证据表明唤醒和表现之间存在曲线关系。目前的结果要求重新审视担忧在解释考试焦虑与表现之间的联系中的作用，并可以帮助教育工作者识别出在考试中表现不佳的学生。