A university teacher studies the effect of the level of aspiration of students, in terms of their socio-economic background, on their scholastic performance at a term-end evaluation conducted by an external testing agency. What is the dependent variable in this study?

Scholastic performance is the outcome being measured, so it is the dependent variable in this study.

Level of aspiration of students is the independent variable whose effect is studied.

Socio-economic background of students is a moderating or classifying variable here.

Term-end evaluation is only the tool through which performance is measured.

The dependent variable changes in response to the independent variable.

A variable held constant to prevent distortion is called a controlled variable.