Affect About Test Preparation
The students believed that mood matters greatly with respect to test preparation.
A good mood can facilitate study or result in distraction—it can permit great concentration or result in many thoughts about the source of happiness.
A bad mood was perceived by the students as almost always having a negative effect on study, for example, by increasing distracting negative thoughts.
The students reported really disliking some types of tests, like pop quizzes, although they believed that surprise quizzes force students to be prepared and to know material well. Students disdain tests that they perceive to underestimate their competence (e.g., tests not representing well the material that was to be tested).