ABSTRACT
This study explored the relationship between Chinese university students’ attitudes towards the College English Test Band 4 (the CET-4) and their test performance. Students’ attitudes were explored through a questionnaire, which consisted of fi ve theoretically-driven constructs. Students’ total scores on the CET-4 were utilized to indicate their test performance. A total of 212 students from two universities in a southern city in China participated in this study. The results of the study showed that students held strong yet mixed feelings towards the CET-4. Two factors, test-taking motivation and test-taking anxiety/lack of concentration, were the best predictors of students’ test performance on the CET-4. Student’s attitudes towards the CET-4 accounted for about 15.4 percent of the variance in their test performance. The factor test-taking anxiety/lack of concentration differentiated female from male students. Three factors: test-taking anxiety/lack of concentration; test-taking motivation; and belief differentiated high-achieving students from low-achieving students in their CET-4 performance.
