The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the effectiveness of massed group desensitization in the reduction of anxiety. Thirty test-anxious nursing students who scored in the upper quartile on the Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ) served as the subjects. The subjects were assigned by the use of a randomized block procedure to one of the following three groups matched on the basis of their pre-test TAQ scores: (1) desensitization, (2) placebo, and (3) control