Although no factor analytic research has been conducted on the original MSES, Kranzler
and Pajares (1997) used factor analytic techniques to analyze a revised version of the MSES,
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referred to as the Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale-Revised (MSES-R) (Pajares & Miller, 1995).
The items on the MSES-R were taken from the original MSES, but the mathematical problems
were replaced by problems from arithmetic, algebra, and geometry taken from the Mathematics
Confidence Scale (Dowling, 1978). Also, on the MSES-R, students rated their confidence on a
scale from 1 to 5, not 0 to 9 as in the original MSES. Factor analysis revealed three factors of the
MSES-R, as expected: mathematical problems, mathematical tasks, and mathematics courses.
The courses, however, were split into two factors—pure mathematics courses and science
courses that require a lot of mathematics. The identification of multiple factors of the MSES-R
suggests that mathematics self-efficacy is conceptually more complex than Betz and Hackett
(1983) believed.