Two factors which act to depress cognitive test performance are referred to as anxiety and boredom. The responses to a 20-item adjectival checklist administered to high school seniors after completing a cognitive test battery were subjected to iterative principal axes factor analysis. The relationships between anxiety or boredom and test performance were explored. Anxiety and boredom were shown to have adverse effects upon performance on reading and mathematics tests. Anxiety and, to a lesser extent, boredom sometimes appear to have effects on test performance which are strong enough to neutralize or reverse effects associated with other variables, such as sex, socioeconomic status, and race or ethnicity. Differences in anxiety level can lead to differences in test scores large enough to mask any evidence of growth. Cognitive growth may not be indicative of true growth, but reflects a change in anxiety level. (DWH)