EXAMINATION STRESS AND ANXIETY: A STUDY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Examination stress among college students has been a topic of interest for many years. College students experience high stress due to various reasons such as lack of preparation, style of their study and lack of needed information. When stress is perceived negatively or becomes excessive, it leads to anxiety before and during examinations and ultimately affects their academic achievement. The present study was conducted to know the examinations stress felt by college students under Arts, Science and Commerce stream of education. Further comparison was done to find out the level of stress felt by college students enrolled in under graduate and post graduate programmes. The sample consisted of 90 college students drawn using stratified random sampling method from two girl‟s colleges. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher to access examination stress and anxiety among college students. The result shows correlation between examination stress and anxiety of college students. On comparing the stress and anxiety among students of different stream, the students of Arts was found having highest stress and anxiety during examination followed by commerce students. There was no significant difference found in the stress and anxiety level of undergraduate and postgraduate students

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Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies Available online at www.gjms.co.in
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EXAMINATION STRESS AND ANXIETY: A STUDY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
ARCHANA KUMARI
Assistant Professor,Human Development and Family Studies,
International College for Girls, IIS University, Jaipur
JAGRATI JAIN
M.Sc Student, International College for Girls, IIS University, Jaipur
ABSTRACT
Examination stress among college students has been a topic of interest for many
years. College students experience high stress due to various reasons such as lack of
preparation, style of their study and lack of needed information. When stress is
perceived negatively or becomes excessive, it leads to anxiety before and during
examinations and ultimately affects their academic achievement. The present study
was conducted to know the examinations stress felt by college students under Arts,
Science and Commerce stream of education. Further comparison was done to find
out the level of stress felt by college students enrolled in under graduate and post
graduate programmes. The sample consisted of 90 college students drawn using
stratified random sampling method from two girl‟s colleges. A questionnaire was
developed by the researcher to access examination stress and anxiety among college
students. The result shows correlation between examination stress and anxiety of
college students. On comparing the stress and anxiety among students of different
stream, the students of Arts was found having highest stress and anxiety during
examination followed by commerce students. There was no significant difference
found in the stress and anxiety level of undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Key Words: Examination Stress, Anxiety, College students, Arts, Science, Commerce
INTRODUCTION
Academic stress can be conceptualized
as a student‟s interactions between
environmental stressors, the student‟s
cognitive appraisal of and coping with
the academic-related stressors, and
psychological or physiological response
to the stressors (Lee & Larson, 2000;
Lou & Chi, 2000). Academic stress is a
pervasive problem across countries,
cultures, and ethnic groups, and must
be viewed in its context (Wong, Wong, &
Scott, 2006). Every student aspires to
pursue academic success to achieve
respect, family pride, and social
mobility (Gow, Bella, Kember, &Hau,
1996). This results in extremely high
academic demands and extraordinary
pressure on students and specially
adolescents (e.g., Bossy, 2000; Ho,
1996). As a consequence of stress and

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demands to perform well in examination
the students are not able to enjoy their
academic life and it becomes joyless and
burden for them.
Stress may be considered as any
physical, chemical or emotional factor
that causes bodily or mental unrest and
that may be a factor in disease
causation. Physical and chemical
factors that can cause stress include
trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses and
injuries of any sort. Emotional causes of
stress and tension are numerous and
varied.
A mild degree of stress and strain can
sometimes be beneficial. For example,
feeling mildly stressed when carrying
out a project or assignment often
compels us to do a good job, focus
better and work energetically. But if the
students feel intense stress before and
during examination, it has
consequences for mental health and
somatic symptoms (Lee & Larson, 2000;
Verma & Gupta, 1990). As per the
report of Banerjee's (2001), every year
about 25,000 students in the age group
of 18 to 20 years commit suicide during
the examination month (i.e. March to
June). Due to high examination stress,
students spent less time in socializing
and get engaged in passive and active
leisure which may further magnify the
effects of examination stress (Lee and
Larson, 2000).
Stress is something that causes strong
feeling of worry or anxiety. It is a
normal part of life and it is not
necessarily harmful until and unless, it
takes over the person to feel
overwhelmed and even isolated. In fact
getting stressed a bit about examination
means that students really care about
the result they will get. It pushes them
to work hard to get a good score. But
when anxiety caused by examination
stress reached clinical or sub-clinical
levels, it interfered with the ability of the
students to perform at their potential.
The inability to perform in turn led to a
greater sense of distress (Raina, 1983).
Stress and anxiety experienced during
the examinations is often attributed to
the fear of failure and can have lasting
negative impacts on the self esteem of
the student. Examination anxiety has
been reported to produce debilitating
cognitive effects including difficulties
with memory and recalling information.
There is a significant positive relation
found between achievement motivation
and academic achievement and a
negative relationship between anxiety
and academic achievement (Alam,
2001).
The sign of stress before and during
examination are, having irregular sleep,
feeling of tiredness, isolated or sad,
feeling ache all over, suffer from
stomach upset, feeling of restlessness or
leading to a condition where you are not
able to recall whatever you studied.
Getting panic, when you see a question
and you cannot answer and your mind
gone blank. It is experienced by many
normal students and it is not very

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An international double – blind peer reviewed, refereed and Indexed Journal with Impact Factor 1.927
33
mysterious or difficult to understand
the ways to manage it. It can be
managed easily by following a plan of
helpful suggestions.
There are basically four main areas
which can contribute to cause pre
examination stress or anxiety. The first
one is lifestyle Issues, which includes
inadequate rest, poor nutrition and lack
of efficient planning of the available
time. If a student does not schedule the
available time, he/she will not be able
to cover the syllabus content at time
resulting in stress. Even if he/she
completes reading of full content and no
time is left for revision, he/she may get
confuse of one content with other
resulting in a situation where the
student feel as if he knows nothing or
forgotten everything. So distributing the
limited time by prioritizing your
commitments can help in coping up
with the stress.
The second important thing to avoid
stress before examination is to have few
necessary information like examination
dates, venue of examination, course
content to be covered, paper required to
sit in examination before in hand. Lack
of any above mentioned information can
cause stress before examination. Many
students follow style of studying which
lead to stress such as trying to
memorize the content of textbooks, all
night studying before exams, inefficient
and inconsistent content coverage, not
making revision notes. Besides these
factors there are some psychological
factors before examination may lead to
examination stress or anxiety. Few
students suffer from irrational beliefs or
demands such as: “If I don‟t get a good
score, I will lose my respect or I will be
worthless”. Some students undergoes
through catastrophic predictions like: “I
will fail no matter how much hard work
I do”.
Higher Education system and
Examination System in India
Education is critical for economic and
social development. It is crucial for
building human capabilities and for
opening opportunities. Without
education, development can neither be
broad based nor sustained. Recognizing
the vital contribution of education to
development, the government of India
accorded due priority to education after
independence and set the targets of
providing access and equity at all level
of education. But due to constitutional
obligation of universalization of
elementary education and emphasis led
by international community on
„Education For All‟ (EFA), elementary
stage of education got highest priority in
government‟s policies and programs.
The second priority has been given to
develop higher education system.
Elementary education creates the
foundation for further learning whereas
the importance of secondary education
lies in the fact that it forms a link
between elementary education and
higher education. But higher education
system adds real value to human

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resources, and produce wealth creators
and leaders in all fields – business,
professions, politics, administration,
and creative pursuits.
Over the past seven decades, India
made impressive strides in the field of
higher education. The quality of the
bulk of our graduates is appalling. The
students are doing their best – they are
studious and disciplined, they cram,
clear entrance tests, pass examinations,
and obtain degrees. But there is other
side of this scenario where, many
university graduates do not have even
rudimentary knowledge, conceptual
understanding, or problem-solving
skills in their own discipline. A culture
of rote learning, lack of application of
knowledge, and a poor examination
system have undermined our higher
education. Most graduates lack basic
communication skills, and have no
problem solving capacity. Educated
unemployment is on the rise, largely
because most graduates cannot
promote wealth creation and are
therefore unemployable.
Another fact related to students of
higher education is the extreme
pressure they feel as a result of cut
throat competition for survival of the
fittest. Everyone wants good grades in
fact outstanding grades, necessary to
excel in today‟s competitive professional
world. Not only students but parents,
teacher‟s expectations from their
children have also been influenced by
this trend. They expect higher grades
from their children and put pressure on
them to perform better. The success of
students is decided by their
examination score rather than the
knowledge or skill they acquire. It is
generally believed that a fair amount of
examination stress is beneficial for
academic success but sometimes excess
of it may lead to anxiety, depression,
examination phobia and many other
psychological problems among
students.
The high level of stress during
examination is not only the result of
student‟s aspiration or parental
expectation, the archaic and disgraceful
examination system for higher
education is equally responsible for it.
The stress is often on testing the
student‟s memory and rote learning. A
careful memorizing of answers to
questions posed in the three previous
years (excluding the immediate past
year) will guarantee high grades!
Analytical skills, application of
knowledge, problem-solving capacity
and innovation are rarely tested. There
is no stress on continuous appraisal
and the student is only judged by
his/her performance in a single final
examination. There is an absolute
disconnect between what is taught in
the class and what is tested. One would
imagine that the teacher who teaches
the course is best suited to evaluate a
student‟s performance in that course.
But in the current system, a completely
disconnected evaluator sitting

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somewhere else grades the student‟s
exam!
This one size fits for all kind of an
examination system does not leave any
room for either continuous appraisal
during the term of the course, or for
testing the student‟s creativity,
application of knowledge and problem
solving skills. In the current higher
education setup, excepting for elite
Careful memorizing of answers to
questions posed in three previous years
(excluding the immediate past) will
guarantee high grades!
In most western universities, the
professor who teaches the course
evaluates the students throughout the
duration of the course, administers
tests or exams and grades the test
papers! Very often, the student‟s final
grade for the course is published within
a week after the finals and there
is a transparent mechanism for
addressing any issues the student may
have with the way his/her work is
evaluated or graded. The tragedy is that
Indian students are smart, ambitious,
hard working and are just responding to
what the system is demanding. The
entire education infrastructure with the
myriad coaching institutes is feeding
this demand. If only the nature of
demand is altered, the students and the
associated infrastructure will respond to
adapt to the new conditions, and
improve supply. There are many models
of examinations for evaluating the
students skillfully, and creating demand
for better education by redefining
success.
Reforming examination system to
reduce examination stress at higher
education level
It was felt very strongly by academician
that there is a need of change in the
examination system of higher
education. They advocated introduction
of the globally accepted credit based
choice (CBC) system. Under this
system, students can choose subjects
on their own and can also ask the
examiner to conduct the examination
when the students are ready for them.
"Subjects and date of examination are
not imposed on students in the credit
based choice (CBC) system.
While the credit based choice (CBC)
system has been operative in several
countries since quite some time now, in
India very few universities have
introduced this system so far. Only 30
out of 569 universities in the country
have implemented the system.
Presently, most of the universities and
colleges in India are practicing the
annual and semester systems of
examinations. "If we adopt the CBC
system by revamping the traditional
method of examination systems, we
expect the gross enrollment in higher
education to be increased and
knowledge of students to improve.
Although, there are many researches on
relationship between examination stress
and anxiety among adolescents. But
they are mostly related to high school

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students. A dearth of studies on
relationship between examination stress
and anxiety among university student
was found and that is the rationale
behind taking this study to focus on
college students. The primary goal of
this paper is to examine how academic
stress affects college students. It should
be of interest for education policy
makers in India to enhance their
understanding of Indian students‟
examination stress and anxiety and to
develop ideas about how to best utilize
and manage the education system to
promote the optimum academic
performance and emotional
development of students in India.
Another goal of this paper is to establish
a conceptual framework that includes
the links between examination stress
and anxiety in Indian Universities. This
should be useful in guiding future
researchers to conduct studies in the
area of academic-related stress and
anxiety in India. Therefore the study
was taken up to find out the
examination stress and anxiety of
college students with the help of
following objectives:
1) To find out the examination stress and
anxiety among college student during
exam.
2) To compare the level of examination
stress and anxiety among college
students of graduation and post
graduation level.
3) To compare the level of examination
stress and anxiety during exam among
students of arts, science and
commerce stream.
Hypothesis:-
1. There is no significant relationship
between adolescent perceived
examination stress and anxiety.
2. There is no significant difference
between perceived examination stress
and anxiety among student of science,
arts and commerce.
3. There is no significant difference
between perceived examination stress
and anxiety among student of
undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Research Design
The present study is a descriptive
research. The data was collected from
the primary sources.
Population: Population for the present
study was college students.
Sample and Sampling Technique:-A
total sample of 90 college students was
selected by using Stratified random
sampling technique. Out of those 90
students, 45 students were from
graduation and 45 students were from
post graduation level. Those 45
students of graduation level consisted of
15 students from Arts, 15 students
from Science and 15 students from
Commerce stream. The same
distribution of students was done for
students of post graduation.
Tool: A self constructed tool was use for
data collection. The questionnaire
consisted of total 120 items. Out of
those 120 items 60 items were designed
to elicit the information on examination

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stress and rest of the 60 items were
related to anxiety level during
examination.
Data Analysis
The scores obtained through the
administration of the questionnaire
were subjected to statistical analysis
such as Mean, SD and Coefficient of
Correlation with the help of SPSS
version 20.
Result & Discussion
Table No: 1.1 Correlation between examination stress and anxiety among
college students
The table 1.1 shows that the correlation
between examination stress and anxiety
is highly significant So the H0 1 is
rejected which, states that there is no
relationship between examination stress
and anxiety among college students.
Students of college feel stress before
examination and it leads to anxiety.
High aspirations, poor study habits,
more study problems, change in
medium of instructions and low socio
economic conditions, test anxiety, fear
of failure, competition for grades,
excessive academic load and
concentration and memory are the
factors responsible for examination
stress and anxiety (G Manjula and
Vijaylaxmi A.H.M. 2012; Edmund 1984;
Joost, 2007). It has been established
through researches that moderate
amount of stress helps to motivate
students and at times increase their
performance (Moore, Burrows & Dalziel,
1992). But excess of it leads to negative
consequences among college students.
Kohlon's (1983) study revealed that lack
of parental help, congenial examination
system, living up to parental
expectation, attitude of the teachers and
fear of examination were the stress
causing factors.
Table No: 1.2 Mean and SD of examination stress and anxiety among college
students of Arts, Science and Commerce background
Examination Stress
Anxiety
N
Mean
SD
N
Mean
SD
Science
30
31.05
5.72
30
26.6
5.04
MEAN
SD
R
Examination
Stress
31.41
5.04
0.79
Anxiety
27.46
5.69

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Arts
30
33.45
3.69
30
29.7
6.24
Commerce
30
29.75
5.1
30
26.1
5.32
The above table 1.2 depicts that the
students of Arts students feel high level
of examination stress (Mean= 33.45) as
compared to the students of Science
(mean= 31.05) and Commerce (Mean=
29.75) stream. The mean value shown
for the anxiety in the above table no. 1.2
shows the similar trend. Students from
Arts stream feels more anxious (Mean=
29.7) than students of Science
(Mean=26.6) and Commerce (Mean=
26.1). This might be because of the
nature of the subjects.
Table No: 4.3 Mean, SD and t value of examination stress and anxiety among
under graduated and post graduate students of Science, Arts and Commerce
stream.
SCIENCE
Mean
SD
T
Examination
stress
UG
30.5
6.75
0.25
PG
31.6
4.81
Anxiety
UG
25.3
5.49
1.02
PG
27.9
4.43
It can be seen in the above table that
perceived examination stress for
students of Science and Arts stream
does not differ much at undergraduate
and postgraduate level. The t value for
level of anxiety of students at UG and
PG level was not found significant. That
means level of education does not
make much difference in examination
stress and anxiety felt by the students.
However, in commerce stream,
undergraduate students perceive higher
level of stress and anxiety as compared
to postgraduate students.
ARTS
Examination
stress
UG
32.9
2.23
0.44
PG
34
4.8
Anxiety
UG
30.4
4.57
0.22
PG
29
7.76
COMME
RCE
Examinat
ion
stress
UG
31.8
4.28
2.12
PG
27.7
5.03
Anxiety
UG
28.2
5.28
1.14
PG
24
4.69

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Conclusion:
Stress is marked by overly high
performance standards, with high levels
of worry, self-criticism of attention while
preparing for or taking exams (Altmaier,
1983, p. 52). Too much stress can
interfere with how a student prepares,
concentrates, and performs. It was
found in the study that examination
stress is highly correlated with level of
anxiety in college students. Among the
students of Arts, Science and
Commerce stream, the students of arts
feels highest level of examination stress
and anxiety followed by the students of
Commerce stream. The least amount of
examination stress and anxiety was
found among students of science
stream.
When the level of stress and anxiety
before and during the examination was
compared between undergraduate and
post graduate students, it was found
that graduate and post graduate
students feel more or less equal level of
stress and anxiety during examinations.
Some college students do not know how
to properly prepare for a test and will
perform poorly and are anxious as a
result. More emphasis is needed on
understanding the impact of
examinations on students, on
identifying vulnerable individuals, and
on the appropriateness of the current
examination process (Fisher, 1994).
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