Of the people making a bad start in a test (6)
I believe the answer is:
tribal
'of the people making a' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'bad start in a test' is the wordplay.
'start' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a test' becomes 'trial' ('trial' can be a synonym of 'test').
The first letter of 'bad' is 'b'.
'b' placed inside 'trial' is 'TRIBAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tribal that I've seen before include "To do with racial groups, especially in primitive cultures" , "Ethnic, sectional" , "Like some groups of people" , "Relating to a social group" , "Relating to clans" .)