University exams at the time of Covid-19 The reactions of students between emotionality and cognition

Abstract This research aims to explore the reactions of students in the face of the pandemic emergency in progress, also in relation to the need and novelty of distance learning, a form in which there is no physical coexistence, in the classroom of teachers and students, and which mainly uses online tools. We asked ourselves the following questions: What is the emotional impact in facing the exam tests? What awareness do students have of the role that emotions play so much in learning and testing processes in exams? The information that we have obtained is useful in the reformulation of our didactic proposal for its consolidation in a metacognitive sense. This is the result that we expect from the research as well as that of offering a contribution to the international debate regarding the changes that the onset of Covid will bring in the ways of addressing the verification of learning in the university environment. The perspective is constructivist–cognitivist, but does not forget the hermeneutic epistemic framework that has always accompanied our studies. The methodological approach is, therefore, quantitative because it is based on the administration of a questionnaire and on the comparative analysis of the data that emerged; but it can also be defined as qualitative due to the relevance that the analysis of their qualities assumes, or rather of the relationships that exist between the data itself as between the latter and the context.