Test anxiety: Gender and academic achievements of university students

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate undergraduate students’ test anxiety level; to measure
the correlation between undergraduate students test anxiety with their
academic achievement; and to measure the correlation of undergraduate students’
test anxiety from the perspective of their gender.
Methodology: Students of eight departments at University of Swat constituted
the study sample. Among these, 126 undergraduate level students were selected
through simple random sampling technique. The tool used for the study was
Westwide Test Anxiety Scale. Analysis of data was done using SPSS version 21.
Results: Among the selected respondents, there were 89 (70.63%) male and
37 (29.37%) female students. Our results revealed that 39.7% of undergraduate
university students were suffering from moderately high test anxiety. Male students
had 44.9% while female students had 27% moderately high test anxiety.
The correlation coefficient between CGPA and test anxiety of students was -.317
which shows inverse relationship. The average CGPA of male students was 2.8
while female students had a CGPA of 3.19. The mean test score of male undergraduate
students was 3.25 ±0.60 and female under graduate students was
3.13 ±0.77, p value .366.
Conclusion: Moderately high test anxiety was found in undergraduate university
students which was similar in both male and female students. Female students
showed better performance as compared to male students.
Key Words: Test anxiety, Academic achievement, Undergraduate students

Full text

JPMI VOL. 32 NO. 3 295
TEST ANXIETY: GENDER AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Nasir Ahmad1, Sajjad Hussain2, Farooq Nawaz Khan3
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
INTRODUCTION
A physical, emotional and mental reaction to threat
of failure on test or evaluation is known as test anxi-
ety. It is an unpleasant emotional response to judge a
situation with a sense of worry and fear1. Test anxiety
results in reduced concentration among students on
their studies2. Stober3 noted the two elements of test
anxiety; firstly ‘worry’ which is the feelings in reaction to
evaluation and the consequences of failing the exam-
ination or test and secondly the perception of reactions
produced by test situation. These components of test
anxiety affect different aspects of students’ life such as
educational activities, inter and intrapersonal commu-
nication, confidence, trust in self and above all mental
health4. Test anxiety results into high level of worry, fear
and academic failure in competent as well as low per-
forming students5.
Research studies6-8 confirm the prevalence of anxi-
ety among students who encounter examination and
reveal its effects on students’ performance. Academic
achievements of students having high anxiety of tests
are relatively less as compared to students who have
low test anxiety, but it is not clear whether there is any
role of test anxiety in lowering the performance of stu-
dents9,10. Lufi et al11 described that students evaluation
may adversely affect their performance irrespective of
their gender and age. Test environment, nature and dif-
ficulty of the evaluative task, atmosphere of examina-
tion hall, time constraints for solving test tasks, mode
of administration of test and physical settings are also
contributory factors that cause anxiety among students.
It has been reported that test anxiety negatively
affect the performance of deprived students (i.e. stu-
dents with lower socioeconomic status, students from
minorities and special education students12-14. Knox et
al15 described that students who are unable to cope
with test anxiety, fail courses and drop out of school.
Furthermore, the state of anxiousness is evoked when a
person under evaluation think that the evaluative situa-
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To investigate undergraduate students’ test anxiety level; to mea-
sure the correlation between undergraduate students test anxiety with their
academic achievement; and to measure the correlation of undergraduate stu-
dents’ test anxiety from the perspective of their gender.
Methodology: Students of eight departments at University of Swat constituted
the study sample. Among these, 126 undergraduate level students were select-
ed through simple random sampling technique. The tool used for the study was
Westwide Test Anxiety Scale. Analysis of data was done using SPSS version 21.
Results: Among the selected respondents, there were 89 (70.63%) male and
37 (29.37%) female students. Our results revealed that 39.7% of undergraduate
university students were suffering from moderately high test anxiety. Male stu-
dents had 44.9% while female students had 27% moderately high test anxiety.
The correlation coefficient between CGPA and test anxiety of students was -.317
which shows inverse relationship. The average CGPA of male students was 2.8
while female students had a CGPA of 3.19. The mean test score of male under-
graduate students was 3.25 ±0.60 and female under graduate students was
3.13 ±0.77, p value .366.
Conclusion: Moderately high test anxiety was found in undergraduate univer-
sity students which was similar in both male and female students. Female stu-
dents showed better performance as compared to male students.
Key Words: Test anxiety, Academic achievement, Undergraduate students
1-3 Center for Education and
Staff Training, University of
Swat – Pakistan.
Address for Correspondence:
Dr. Nasir Ahmad
Assistant Professor,
Center for Education and Staff
Training, University of Swat –
Pakistan.
Email: nasir_cupid@uswat.edu.
pk
Date Received: October 09,
2017
Date Revised: August 10, 2018
Date Accepted: August 16,
2018
This article may be cited as: Ahmad N, Hussain S, Khan FN. Test anxiety: Gender and academic achievements of
university students. J Postgrad Med Inst 2018; 32(3): 295-300.

JPMI VOL. 32 NO. 3 296
TEST ANXIETY: GENDER AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
tion does not suit his/her potentials and is beyond one’s
intellectual and social capabilities16. Some researchers
also found gender differences in test anxiety9,17-18. Mc-
donald8 observed that anxiety was found to be higher
in female students as compared to male students. Co-
lom et al19 reported high IQ level of male students as
the brain size of males is larger than female students.
However, Lao20 concluded that female students accom-
plished better; and got better results in terms of CGPA
than male students in pre-collegiate level. Reporting
test anxiety in most cases is not taken seriously thus re-
sulting into increased difficulties for students, teachers
and parents. Mulvenonet al21 found in his research that
in most cases students themselves, their parents, teach-
ers and educational counselors do not report high level
of stress and anxiety in students.
Test and examinations at all stages of educational ca-
reer are of high significance for an individual, especially
at tertiary level of education it has been considered very
important and powerful device for decisions. In higher
education in Pakistan and elsewhere students with vari-
ety of age range are being assessed with respect to their
academic abilities22. The completion of higher education
leads to practical life and the success or failure at this
stage may affect the whole life of the person tending to
result in probable anxiety in them23. It is of concern that
increase in high-stake testing will result in greater test
anxiety which can damage the students’ well-being in
diverse ways. Therefore it is of high significance to in-
vestigate the academic successes of university students
in relation to test anxiety. The purpose of the study in-
cluded finding out test anxiety level of undergraduate
university students, their gender-wise differences and
its relationship with their academic achievement.
METHODOLOGY
This was a descriptive study. There were 625 stu-
dents in 08 selected departments, out of these a sample
of 126 (20%) students were selected for our research.
The study was sampled in light of directives of Gay et
al24, where they recommended that when the popula-
tion comprised of 100 so all must be included in sample
group; when it is between 101 to 500 individuals so 50%
may be included; when it is between 501 to 1500 the
sample may include 20%; and for above 1500 a sample
of 5% is enough for the sample group. Simple random
sampling technique was used. Table 1 shows details of
study sample.
The tool used for the study was Westwide Test Anx-
iety Scale. It is a ten item self-explanatory scale con-
structed by Driscoll25. The scale was initially developed
to measure subject’s anxiety related problems. Most of
the items in scale straight away ask about performance
impairment, fear or stress, which is mostly concerned
with concentration. The scale was pilot tested for local
validation. Some changes were made as per require-
ments of the local context. While gathering data from
the respondents, the scale was used in March 2017 (two
weeks before the start of final term examination). The
selected students for data collection were briefed about
purpose of data collection. They were briefed that their
honest response to the questions may lead to correct
research conclusions. They were also assured that their
responses will not be disclosed to anyone. The total
score (CGPA) of selected students were requested from
their relevant departments soon after declaration of
their results. Data were analyzed for frequency, percent-
ages, comparisons and p value using SPSS version 21.
Table 1: Contingency table for sample (n=126)
Department Male Students Female Students Total
Psychology 11 6 17
Education 12 4 16
Statistics 9 6 15
Economics 12 0 12
Management Sciences 12 5 17
Botany 9 7 16
Zoology 12 6 18
Computer Sciences 12 3 15
Total 89 37 126

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TEST ANXIETY: GENDER AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Table 2: Gender-wise comparison of students on Westwide Test Anxiety Scale (n=126))
Variables
All Students Male Students Female Students
Frequency Percentages Frequency Percentages Frequency Percentages
Small
Test Anxiety 8 6.3 6 6.7 2 5.4
Moderate
Test Anxiety 17 13.5 7 7.9 10 27.0
High Normal
Test Anxiety 8 6.3 4 4.5 4 10.8
Moderately High
Test Anxiety 50 39.7 40 44.9 10 27.0
High
Test Anxiety 28 22.2 25 28.1 3 8.1
Extremely High
Test Anxiety 15 11.9 7 7.9 8 21.6
Total 126 100 89 100 37 100
Table 3: Relationship of university undergraduate students’ academic achievement and test anxiety
Constructs CGPA Test Anxiety p value
CGPA 1 .317**
.000
Test Anxiety .317** 1
** Correlation between the constructs is signicant at 0.01 level
Table 2: Gender-wise dierences among university students from the perspective of their CGPA and
Westwide Test Anxiety Scale
Variables
Male Students Female Students
t p value
n=89 n=37
M SD M SD
CGPA 2.8 0.47 3.19 0.44 4.32 .000
Test Anxiety 3.2 0.60 3.13 0.77 0.90 .366

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TEST ANXIETY: GENDER AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
RESULTS
There were 89 (70.63%) male and 37 (29.37%) female
students in the present study. Our results revealed that
39.7% of undergraduate university students were suf-
fering from moderately high test anxiety. Male students
had 44.9% while female students had 27% moderately
high test anxiety (Table 2).
The correlation coefficient between CGPA and test
anxiety of students was -.317 which shows inverse rela-
tionship (Table 3).
The average CGPA of male students was 2.8 while
female students had a CGPA of 3.19. Gender-wise dif-
ferences among university students from the perspec-
tive of their CGPA and Westwide Test Anxiety Scale are
shown in Table 4.
3.. DISCUSSION
We observed that most of the university students
had moderately high test anxiety. Our findings are in
accordance with studies by Segool et al26 and Zhang
et al27 who found that most of the students were going
through moderate to high level of anxiety during their
career. Methia28 also found that majority of school go-
ing children experience at least some test anxiety. This
was also supported by Afzal et al29 who found high lev-
els of test anxiety in medical students and recommend-
ed anxiety-reduction programmes for medical students.
Matters et al30 also found that students with high level
of test anxiety omit test item or some time do not re-
spond to test item which leads to poor performance.
Possible reasons for high level of test anxiety may be
parental and teacher expectation, lengthy and extensive
courses, lack of study and long duration of exams.
The negative relationship between students’ test
anxiety and academic attainments (in terms of CGPA) of
undergraduate students was also supported by Chapell
et al13 who found significant relationship between test
anxiety and GPA in both undergraduate and graduate
students. This was also supported by Rezazadeh et al31
who noted a negative relationship between test anxiety
and academic achievement in undergraduate universi-
ty students. On the other hand, Ogden32 observed no
relationship between test anxiety and grade point aver-
age of students. Vogel et al33 also studied correlation of
test anxiety and academic achievement of students and
concluded that students showing high level of test anx-
iety and students with low level of test anxiety exhibited
lower academic performance.
In our study, female students showed significantly
better performance than male students (CGPA of 3.19
vs. 2.8, respectively). Our findings are supported by
the study of Lao20 who reported that female students
achieved higher CGPA as compared to male students.
Fortin et al34 also concluded that female students had
higher academic success as compared to male students.
These findings, however, were contrary to the study by
Mackintosh35 who noted that there are no gender dif-
ferences in general intelligence.
We found no gender differences in undergraduate
students in terms of test anxiety. This was in confor-
mity with the study by Soffer36 who showed that there
was no significant gender difference on test anxiety in
elementary school students. However, he found that
female students experience high level of test anxiety
than males at different grades levels. Hembree37 also re-
vealed that female students experience higher levels of
test anxiety than male students. McDonald8 noted that
although there are apparent gender differences but the
occurrence of test anxiety becomes more similar across
sexes.
.. CONCLUSION
Moderately high test anxiety was found in under-
graduate university students thus negatively affecting
their academic achievements. Male and female under-
graduate students exhibited similar test anxiety. Under-
graduate female students showed better performance
as compared to male undergraduate students.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Student may be provided with institutional help
through various stress reduction programs to help stu-
dents in reducing test anxiety and increasing their ac-
ademic achievements. University and college teachers
may arrange counseling sessions for students to assess
their test anxiety and increase their test taking skills and
confidence. Further research studies are needed probe
into other factors such as culture, family background,
institutional facilities, parental education, peer pressure,
parental expectations and test administration.
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CONTRIBUTORS
NA conceived the idea, planned the study, draft-
ed and critically revised the manuscript. SH did data
collection and analysis. FNK interpreted the data and
critically revised the manuscript. All authors contrib-
uted significantly to the submitted manuscript.
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