Predictions derived from social learning theory and from the attributional reformulation of learned helplessness theory were tested in a ‘real‐life’ situation involving success or failure, the British driving test. Among the predictions made were that pre‐test expectations would affect the probability of passing, the attributions made for success or failure, and persistence following failure. The attributional dimensions of internality, stability and globality were expected to correlate with mood, expectancy of future success and persistence, and sex differences were predicted in both expectations and attributions. The results showed that pre‐test expectations were related to attributions of success and to persistence, but not to the probability of passing or to attributions for failure. Attributions themselves correlated only in the predicted fashion with expectancy of future success among male subjects. But there were consistent sex differences in expectations, attributions for success and persistence. The implications of these findings for cognitive/attributional theory are