Test difficulty and stereotype threat on the GRE general test

This study investigated (a) the ability to minimize or eliminate stereotype threat by reducing the difficulty of items administered via a computer-adaptive version of the Graduate Record Examinations General Test; and (b) the generalizability of these findings for Black students as well as women, and for verbal as well as quantitative sections of the test. Standard and easier versions of the test, and measures of stereotype threat and possible symptoms or sequelae of stereotype threat were administered to students bound for graduate school or already there. Reducing test difficulty did not have any differential effects on test performance or on explicit indexes of stereotype threat for White and Black students, and for men and women, that were statistically and practically significant. However, such effects did occur for some symptoms or sequelae, mainly for White students and women.