Optional Exam Retakes Reduce Anxiety but may Exacerbate Score Disparities Between Students with Different Social Identities.

ABSTRACT: Use of high-stakes exams in a course has been associated with gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequities. We investigated whether offering students the opportunity to retake an exam makes high-stakes exams more equitable. Following the control value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that exam retakes would increase students' perceived control over their performance and decrease the value of a single exam attempt, thereby maximizing exam performance. We collected data on exam scores and experiences with retakes from three large introductory biology courses and assessed the effect of optional exam retakes on gender, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in exam scores. We found that Black/African American students and those who worked more than 20 h a week were less li

SUBMITTER: Supriya K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11440740 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature