When a student is too nervous before a test, he or she is said to be having test anxiety. However, it is entirely normal for students to have a degree of uneasiness as they are preparing for or are about to take an examination. Naturally, having feelings of nervousness and stress when faced with exams, presentations, or papers is common. Moreover, in today’s world, test anxiety has proven to be problematic, especially in cases that the students in question are newly inducted into a specific stage of their education. For instance, first-year college students are likely to be more anxious before exams compared to their final year counterparts. Test anxiety is problematic because it decreases student productivity and jeopardizes their overall academic achievements. Hence, it is necessary to develop effective therapeutic interventions that facilitate the reduction of test anxiety among students. Thus, the proposed research topic aims at exploring the issue of test anxiety among first-year college students to determine its effects and establish the therapeutic interventions that can be implemented by psychologists, counselors, and educators to minimize any adversities thereof.
Topic Approach
Every year, the number of college students who underperform do so due to test anxiety, a factor referred to as a "set of physiological, phenomenological and behavioral reactions accompanying concerns regarding negative consequences on evaluative tests or exams” (Vitasari et al., 2011). Vitasari et al. (2011) state that although test anxiety mostly depends on various situational variables like task level difficulties, motivation, and the applied results of either, the instances of low or high-performance variation is significant from one student to the other. Therefore, Vitasari et al. (2011) insist that there are particular groups of college students who are generally calm when faced with exam situations and others who perceive tests as threatening. Thus, these students often feel elevated levels of anxiety when taking examinations, depicting that minimal self-confidence among students is the cause of test anxiety.
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Considering other types of anxiety that have been studied, test-related nervousness is the most explored component. It is a significant occurrence in a certain level of evaluative anxiety felt by most individuals in the current society. It has attracted a great deal of attention and controversies since it was discovered as a mental health issue in the 1950s. Scholars like Guay et al. (2016) have thus formulated significant advances towards comprehending its components, nature, determinants, treatments, effects, and origins. As of today, Owens et al. (2012) state that there is evidence on the linkage of poor academic performance to test anxiety as a result of stress among students. Thus, issues concerning test anxiety have recently progressed due to the rise of the rate of individual exposure to examinations. Therefore, test anxiety is a critical, social, educational, and clinical issue for various people.
Since most occupational and academic settings have significant practical implications for the future career and goals of an individual, test anxiety is an essential factor that impacts upon examination scores. As such, a research conducted by Eum & Rice (2011) on test anxiety, alongside the study by van Lier et al. (2012) was mainly driven by the aspiration to restructure the increasing rates of test anxiety among populations. Furthermore, different approaches to assisting test-anxious individuals to be extra effective in exams or exam-like circumstances have also been made. Currently, test anxiety is a matter of concern in various education and psychology disciplines.
The study will take a narrative approach, which will apply as the methodology that will be employed to analyze the experiences of first-year college students when they are required to take exams. The researcher will use the insights provided by the subjects of the study to develop a chronological and comprehensive argument to facilitate comprehension of the dynamics that are involved when first-year college students are faced with exams. Specifically, the oral history type of narrative will guide the execution of the research by enabling the acquisition of personal reflections on what first-year college students think about taking tests and the anxiety that comes with it. Thus, through the narrative approach, the researcher hopes to acquire comprehensive first-hand information that will provide insights into the effects of test anxiety among first-year college students.
Statement of the Problem
The problem that the research will be exploring is the impact that test anxiety has on first-year college students. The educational systems in colleges are characterized by an exam-oriented structure, which defines academic milestones. While the scholastic aspect of college education forms the core curriculum requirement of the colleges, the type of hurdles it predisposes the students to include the pressure to avoid failure at all costs, and a lot of competition, which at times traumatizes the students it is meant to shape. Consequently, this has motivated the study to explore the challenge of test-related anxiety among first-year students, its causes, and at the end, it will suggest the best way forward to remedy the issue.
Literature Review
In today’s educational domain, college instructors often measure the knowledge and competencies that students obtain by giving them multiple assignments and presentations. However, the course grades of students at the end of every semester or academic year are mainly measured by examination scores. Therefore, under the conditions set by their respective learning centres, students get pressured to perform well to graduate (Vitasari et al., 2011). For students to obtain high examination scores, they must spend most of their time studying. As such, when faced with difficult academic situations, most college students find themselves prone to anxiety. Hence the central question becomes, how does test anxiety impact first-year college students? The researcher hypothesizes that the current examination system in colleges is detrimental, especially to the students that have been newly inducted into the educational institutions.
Measures that have been taken to reduce the development of test anxiety among college students include the implementation of early childhood interventions such as the teaching of self-regulation need to reduce school-related stress during the early stages of a child's development. Eum & Rice (2011) state that nervousness has been found to have significant negative influences on people's information processing systems. Individuals with anxiety often find it difficult to store and retrieve information learned. Moreover, Owens et al. (2012) state that some college students find it difficult to informally or formally assess knowledge due to anxiety. On the other hand, not all college instructors understand or know the signs of nervousness and the effect it may have on their students (Eum & Rice, 2011). If only instructors recognize the symptoms of stress, can they help their students to cope with test anxiety? Since every student has unique characteristics of their own, understanding various methods of dealing with stress can provide considerable benefits to a variety of students. Additionally, Eum & Rice (2011) assert that by incorporating multiple therapeutic interventions into the learning process of college students, a lot can be achieved in terms of reducing cases of test anxiety during examinations.
When faced with tests and examinations, Owens et al. (2012) maintain that students often have feelings of anxiety. However, the levels of nervousness that each college student faces mostly vary. Some exhibit high levels of anxiety, while others exhibit low or moderate levels of stress. In light of the challenges related to examination anxiety among college students, the paper will examine how anxiety impacts the performance of various college students (Owens et al., 2012). Additionally, by taking into account different population groups among college students, the paper will determine how test anxiety affects each of the groups and the appropriate interventions that can be implemented to reduce exam-related stress. Moreover, a summary of existing research will be included in addition to recommendations for future exploration of test anxiety among college students.
Purpose Statement
The study aims at determining the type of connection that exists between test anxiety among college students and their academic performance. Additionally, this analysis attempts to identify the ways test anxiety affects female and male students, how both groups try to deal with the problem, and the various interventions that can be made to combat the issue.
Research Questions
How do you feel when you know that you have to take a test?
Among first-year college students, how does test anxiety affect academic performance?
How much do you think test anxiety impacts your academic achievements, if you could put a number on it?
How would you describe the effect of test anxiety on male and female first-year students?
Which therapeutic interventions can be used to reduce test anxiety among first-year college students?
How would they impact the students’ academic achievements?
References
Eum, K., & Rice, K. G. (2011). Test anxiety, perfectionism, goal orientation, and academic performance. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 24(2), 167-178.
Owens, M., Stevenson, J., Hadwin, J. A., & Norgate, R. (2012). Anxiety and depression in academic performance: An exploration of the mediating factors of worry and working memory. School Psychology International, 33(4), 433-449.
Van Lier, P. A., Vitaro, F., Barker, E. D., Brendgen, M., Tremblay, R. E., & Boivin, M. (2012). Peer victimization, poor academic achievement, and the link between childhood externalizing and internalizing problems. Child development, 83(5), 1775-1788.
Guay, F., Lessard, V., & Dubois, P. (2016). How can we create better learning contexts for children? Promoting students’ autonomous motivation as a way to foster enhanced educational outcomes. In Building autonomous learners (pp. 83-106). Springer, Singapore.
Vitasari, P., Wahab, M. N. A., Othman, A., Herawan, T., & Sinnadurai, S. K. (2010). The relationship between study anxiety and academic performance among engineering students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8, 490-497.
