Assessment of High-Stakes Testing, Hopeful Thinking, and Goal Orientation among Baccalaureate Nursing Students.

Background and Objectives: High-stakes didactic testing assesses competency. Exams are stressful, and decreasing anxiety may enhance learning. Academic progression and graduation rates may result when higher levels of hopeful thinking (the belief in one's ability to achieve desired goals), and certain achievement goal orientation (why one desires to succeed) are present.
Methods: This non-experimental study engaged undergraduate nursing students via surveys to examined relationships among hopeful thinking, goal orientation, and scores on standardized high-stakes examination of students.
Results: Regression analyses (N = 151) indicated that hopeful thinking was significantly related to higher exam scores, and that performance-avoidance goal scores were significantly related to lower scores.
Conclusion: The positive relationship between hopeful thinking and exam scores suggests the need to consider supporting hopeful thinking in nursing education. Additional research may explicate the relationship between performance-avoidance and scores on high-stakes exams.