This study investigated the relationships between when a test is administered and the amount of test-taking effort exhibited by examinees. Three time-related variables were investigated: the time of year the test was administered, the day of the week the test event occurred, and the time of day that the test event occurred. Mean effort did not appear to vary across either time of year nor day of week. There was, however, a clear time of day effect, with mean effort decreasing throughout the day. In addition, mean effort was found to decrease across grade, and male examinees were found to exhibit lower mean effort than female examinees.

By Steven L. Wise, Lingling Ma, Gage Kingsbury and Carl Hauser