tendency to blame poor mathematical performance by female students on either a fear of mathematics or on a poor aptitude for the subject. While these findings document the existence of a relationship between high levels of test anxiety and performance on mathematics tests, however, the findings do not provide a conclusive argument that test anxiety is the causal factor of poor performance. Such an argument implies that subjects are fully competent to perform the mathematics tasks on which they are tested, and that a failure to perform such tasks satisfactorily is attributable only to a fear of being tested. An equally rational argument may be made that the cause of test anxiety in such instances is a knowledge on the part of subjects that they do not possess the required level of competency to perform in a satisfactory manner the tasks on which they are to be tested. This line of reasoning, however, cannot be used to justify a contention that female students generally do not possess an aptitude for mathematics.
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