Gamification Based assessment: A Test Anxiety Reduction through Game Elements in Quizizz Platform

Abstract

Test anxiety always makes students afraid of doing the test because they probably think that they will fail. To overcome the problem, the teacher then used gamification based assessment. Furthermore, the study investigate the category of students test anxiety, students' attitudes toward Quizizz and the students' preference toward the elements of game in Quizizz. This study is case study which the data were collected by using observation, interview and questionnaires. The participants of this study were 14 students in English course in Solo. The sampling used by the researcher was purposive sampling. The results of this study showed the category of students test anxiety considered moderately high, the students' attitude toward Quizizz in reducing test anxiety also considered high (M= 3.94) and the kinds of elements of game which students prefer most were Points (M= 4.357), Test report (M= 3.929), Leader board (M=3.714), Time restriction (M=3.357), Profile (M= 3.429) and Meme (M= 3.357). The implication of this study is Quizizz successfully reduce test anxiety because of the use of game elements in that application. Thus, it is a good option for teachers to use Quizizz on the exam.

Full text

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Gamification Based assessment: A Test Anxiety Reduction through Game
Elements in Quizizz Platform
Muhammad Dafit Pitoyo
1*
, Sumardi
2
, Abdul Asib
3
1,2,3
English Education Department Graduate Program, Teacher and Training Faculty, Universitas
Sebelas Maret, Jl. Ir. Sutami No.36A, Jebres, Surakarta, Jawa Tengah 57126, Indonesia
Abstract
Test anxiety always makes students afraid of doing the test because they probably think that they will fail. To
overcome the problem, the teacher then used gamification based assessment. Furthermore, the study investigate
the category of students test anxiety, students’ attitudes toward Quizizz and the students’ preference toward the
elements of game in Quizizz. This study is case study which the data were collected by using observation,
interview and questionnaires. The participants of this study were 14 students in English course in Solo. The
sampling used by the researcher was purposive sampling. The results of this study showed the category of
students test anxiety considered moderately high, the students’ attitude toward Quizizz in reducing test anxiety
also considered high (M= 3.94) and the kinds of elements of game which students prefer most were Points (M=
4.357), Test report (M= 3.929), Leader board (M=3.714), Time restriction (M=3.357), Profile (M= 3.429) and
Meme (M= 3.357). The implication of this study is Quizizz successfully reduce test anxiety because of the use of
game elements in that application. Thus, it is a good option for teachers to use Quizizz on the exam.
Keywords: Assessment, Gamification, Elements of game, Test anxiety.
1. Introduction
Test anxiety becomes a concern as it is believed
to be detrimental to the school success owing to the
effect on performance evaluation and self-esteem. Test
anxiety is defined to be an individual emotional state.
The individual feeling before or throughout a particular
assessment in relation with the act of completing the
assessment, the risk and fear of failing and anything
related to undesirable moments (Bonaccio & Reeve,
2010). Test anxiety is a serious problem for many
students (Ergene, 2003) because it will be the obstacles
to achieve their goals. Moreover, examination is
definitely becoming harder and more anxiety-
provoking (Putwain, 2014). Generally, university
students suffer more anxiety because in that educational
level they think about future and career and it is
affected by the score of the test they take or get in
university or institution. College is an important time of
life for many people and much scholastic testing occurs
during that time (Guay, 2005).
There are many ways to overcome the problems,
to reduce the anxiety as students on the exam. The
teachers can take the benefits of technology by using
gamification in education world such as for assessment.
There were many researchers conducting investigation
of game and technology in test anxiety reduction. Smits
& Charlier (2011) conducted study entitled Game-
based assessment and the effect on test anxiety. The
result of the study was concluded that games’
integration in assessment result in positive
psychological well-being as the result of less test
anxiety of students. They assumed based on the
literatures that it would increase academic achievement.
Pless, A. (2010) also concluded from his study that the
usefulness of computerized treatment for test anxiety
was successful. Both study are the evidences of the use
of technology and game in reducing students’ test
anxiety. However, researcher was interested to
investigate gamification for reducing test anxiety which
was employed in some English course.
Gamification is non-game contexts in using
game design element (Zichermann & Cunningham in
Marcos et.al, 2014). Thus, it is not like pure game. It
only uses the elements of game to create something like
game. The game elements which can be included are
Badges, Achievements, Avatars Content Unlocking,
Leader Board, Points, Virtual Goods, Teams and
Levels (Werbach and Hunter in Cheong, 2014). Those
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*)
Penulis Korespondensi.
E-mail: mr.daves.sir@gmail.com

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element will be designed for enhancing engagement,
motivation and instruction (Kim, 2015).
Gamification is applicable for many aspects in
the education such as for teaching and assessment.
However, the focus of this study is on the way teacher
use gamification based assessment as the way to reduce
students’ test anxiety. As generally known that most of
the students like to play game and they play it most of
the time in their lives. One of the most popular online
game in Indonesia is Mobile Legend. It is MOBA
(Massive Online Battle Arena), 5 players VS 5 Players.
The statistical data obtained by the game company that
there are 43 million players who are monthly active in
Southeast Asia and Indonesian players are almost 50
percent of the total (Sunarto, et. al, 2019). It indicated
that most of the people are engaged with something
game-like. Furthermore, it is able to be adapted into
assessment as students will probably feel like happy to
have it.
Based on background of the study, the
researcher to investigate (1) the students’ anxiety as
facing examination, (2) the students’ attitude toward
Quizizz employment in examination and (3) game
elements in Quizizz which students are engaged most.
The significance of this study will be for the innovation
of conducting assessment in school or education world.
It gives teachers options to include technology and
game into completing purposes because this is the era
of industry 4.0. However, to face the industrial
revolution 4.0, teachers are supposed to be able to use
ICT in teaching and learning in which it is also in the
line with the demand of the 21
st
century learning
(Dwiono et.al, 2018).
a. Assessment
One of the important things in education which
support the successful teaching learning process is
assessment. It is admittedly to be a source of data
which will be utilized to create anticipation. It means
teachers will be able to reflect their teaching process
including the students learning process to achieve the
learning goals. Assessment appeared in educational
issue in the 20
th
century. There were various literatures
discussed about assessment and there were lots of
experts interested in the case. They agreed that
assessment is the part of educational system which is
not separable as it becomes the main component of
education to conduct an effective learning (Bransford
et.al, 2000).
Teachers should understand the progress of
students’ learning progress from early moment until the
end of teaching learning process in some academic
year. Hereby, Assessment is the way to monitor
students’ learning progress. Assessment is used by
teacher to collect more information about students’
learning progress systematically. The information is
able to be collected by many ways in the form of
written and oral test such as extended performance of
authentic task, responses (essays), traditional paper and
pencil tests, and student self-report. In additions,
teachers can also observe their students during teaching
learning process and they can also assess their students
incidentally or intendedly. A good teacher will never
ignore his students because assessment becomes an
integral part of the instructional process and the way to
help students learn (Guskey, 2003).
There are two types of common assessment in
education namely formative and summative
assessment. Both types of assessment are used to
evaluate students’ learning progress. Nevertheless, the
way to obtain the progress is different. Formative
assessment is ongoing process of evaluating students’
competencies and skills. Thus, the assessment is
considered longer depends on the academic period
given. According to Brown (2004, p.6), Formative
assessment is evaluation of developing students’
competencies and skills process in the form of aid to
enhance students’ growth and progress of learning.
While summative assessment is evaluation of
students’ competencies and skills in the end of unit of
instruction or course. Thus, the evaluation is not
ongoing like formative assessment. According to
Brown (2004) Summative assessment is the way to
measure what students have learnt during some period
given, and usually conducted at the end of unit of
instruction.
There are basic principles of assessment which are
theorized by Brown (2004) as follows:
(1) Appropriate assessments serve in strengthening and
retention of information.
(2) Assessments can identify areas of strength areas
which need treatment.
(3) Assessments can offer a sense of constant approach
to elements within a curriculum.
(4) Assessments can promote student autonomy by
encouraging students' self-evaluation of their
progress.
(5) Assessments can motivate learners to have goals.
(6) Assessments can evaluate teaching effectiveness.
b. Test anxiety
Test anxiety is something common happening
among students as the test will determine their future
such as their career. They will think how to achieve the
best performance for the test. They think over and
cause some anxiety which disturb their performance.

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Test anxiety is a serious problem for many students
(Ergene, 2003). Definitely, examination is becoming
harder and more anxiety-provoking (Putwain, 2008).
The result of the anxiety is a negative affective state
occurring in evaluative conditions. The negative
affective is due to worry, tension, and over-stimulation
of the central nervous system (Ergene 2003).
There are two fundamental elements to investigate
students’ test anxiety and those two become the general
focus. Both elements are cognitive component and
physiological component (McDonald, 2001). Cognitive
component refers to worry. Cognitive interference
diverts attention to self-deprecating thoughts (Orbach et
al. 2007). Henceforth, the children have negative
beliefs about the ability of problem-solving although
they actually are capable to solve the problem and
generate some solutions. On the other hand,
Physiological component refers to emotionality or
autonomic arousal manifested in bodily indications
such as sweaty palms, heart rate increase, and
trembling arising from being in an evaluative situation
(McDonald, 2001)
Regarding with the investigation of students’ test
anxiety, Richard Driscoll (2007) created an instrument
with several criteria as the reference of the test anxiety
level. It was called The Westside Test Anxiety Scale. It
combines six items assessing impairment, four items on
worry and dread. The ten items in the instrument is
designed to identify the anxiety impairments form
students. It hopefully helps teachers for conducting
intervention to reduce students test anxiety. The scale
items cover self-assessed anxiety impairment and
cognitions which can impair performance. There six
categories of students’ test anxiety which is determined
with the mean score.
Table 1. Westside Test Anxiety Scale
Richard Driscoll (2007)
Mean
score
Catefory of test anxiety
1.0—1.9 Comfortably low test anxiety
2.0—2.5 Normal or average test anxiety
2.5—2.9 High normal test anxiety
3.0—3.4 Moderately high (some items
rated 4=high
3.5—3.9 High test anxiety (half or more
of the items rated 4=high)
4.0—5.0 Extremely high anxiety (items
rated 4=high and 5=extreme)
c. Gamification in assessment
Gamification is the term which came popularly
in 2010 and there are many experts discuss about the
use of gamification in education such as the use of
gamification to engage students learning motivation.
According to de Byl (2013) the popularity of
gamification is indicated in 2010 by Google search
tool. Gamification is like the derivation from game in
which the core is the same. Game and gamification is
like using the term of play to get engagement. Thus,
both are based on entertaining principles. However,
gamification and game is different in this context of
education.
Landers & Callan (2011) give definition on
gamification as the use of elements associated with
game such as game mechanics to an educational
purposes to create more learning engagement.
Additionally, Gamification is able to enhance students’
engagement, motivation and instruction (Kim, 2015).
The elements of game are various and those all
elements will support the idea of gamification.
As gamification is utilized to be assessment,
there should be any design which associate game
elements, game mechanic and game dynamic into one
constituent. They are the core of the successful
gamification based assessment. One of examples the
design came from Werbach and Hunter Hunter in
Cheong, 2014. They explained to design gamification
based assessment into three steps. The first process is to
select the dynamics of the test and second process is to
select the appropriate mechanic of the test. It needs to
take into account that both dynamics and mechanics of
the test should be matched. The last is to select the
components which fit the mechanics. Dynamics,
mechanics and components of game utilized in the
gamification based assessment are summarized in
Table.
Table 2. Design of gamified assessment by Werbach
and Hunter Hunter in Cheong (2014)
Dynamics Mechanics Components
Constraints Challenge Content unlocking
Emotions
Challenge Content unlocking
Reward Badges, Achievements,
Avatars Content Unlocking
Competition Badges, Leader Board
Competition Teams
Resource
Acquisition
Points, Virtual Goods
Feedback Points, Content Unlocking,
Badges Leader Board,
Levels

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Dynamics Mechanics Components
Progression
Reward Badges, Achievements,
Content Unlocking
Resource
Acquisition
Points, Virtual Goods
Feedback Points, Badges, Leader
Board, Levels
Relationship Cooperation Teams
(1) Components, components are the smallest parts
which directly affect the design of gamification. To
integrate the dynamics and mechanics selected in
this research, the following components were used:
avatars, levels, content unlocking, the leader board,
achievements, virtual goods, points, teams and
badges.
(2) Mechanics, a gamified environment consists of
mechanics, which are used to create player
engagement and involve essential processes. To
highlight the dynamics selected for this design, the
mechanics of challenge, rewards, feedback,
resource acquisition, cooperation and competition.
(3) Dynamics, a gamified environment consists of
dynamics, which are not directly included in the
process, yet make it possible to look at the design
from a broader perspective. Among the dynamics,
constraints, emotions, progression and relationships
were used in this study.
d. Quizizz
Quizizz is website that provide teachers to
conduct formative assessments by giving quiz for
student of all ages. According to Reece (2016);
Yoshida (1985), quiz is a test of knowledge which has
been gained in advance, especially as a competition in
the form of game. Although, it is like competition, the
test is entertaining. Quiz is an entertaining and easy
way to investigate students’ understanding of some
topics (Sue, 2006). She added that quiz would prize a
reward for some who accomplished some achievement.
Thus, it will minimize students’ anxiety during doing
the test with quiz (Barbara, 2009). Quiz is usually used
multiple choice question which is quickly and easily to
score students answer (Tabata et.al, 2009); (Zane &
Lin, 2013) and quiz provides questions at various levels
of difficulty (William, 2011). Furthermore, the
students’ report of their answers (feedback) will be
given directly, automatically.
Quizizz provides multiplayer activity that students
possibly can practice together. The total player who
will do the quiz is determined by the teacher.
Students will be given a code to join a quiz and the
teacher will ensure the students who join the quiz
with the students’ attendance list to avoid intruders.
Thus, not everyone can join the quiz. Quizizz supports
on all devices such as computers, smartphones and
tablet and quizizz also has iOS, Chrome apps and
Android. Consequently, it is reachable in this era
which technology development is very impressive.
Most students have smartphone or laptop with good
internet connection and it is accessible for them to do
the quiz. However, students need to have their own
device in the other word one student, one device. The
main features of Quizizz include:
(1) Student-paced: teacher will give a time limit for
each question and students need to answer before
the time given for each answer is up.
(2) BYOD: quizizz can be played in various devices
with a browser, including PCs, smartphones,
laptops, tablets, and.
(3) Thousands of public quizzes: a great number of
teacher around the globe create their own quiz and
it can be shared, thus everyone can do the quiz as
long as they are the member of quizizz. It is really
helpful for teacher to get some inspiration from
another teacher in designing the quiz.
(4) Quiz Editor: quizizz allows the teachers to pluck
questions from any quiz, easily add images from
the internet, auto-save teachers’ progress and tons
of other features.
(5) Reports: this feature is the one which can give
teachers detailed information about student-level
understanding and class-level for each quiz that
teachers conduct. Teacher can also download the
report in the form of spreadsheet in Microsoft
excel.
(6) Quiz Customization: Teachers can customize
their quiz session in multiple options to consider
the level of competition, speed, and other factors
There are also settings including question
and game which teachers can use to create quiz that
they want or represent teachers’ goal.

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Figure 1. Questions settings of Quizizz
e. Attitude
According to Sharma (2013), attitude is
defined a complex mental state including beliefs,
values, feelings, and personalities to act in certain
ways. It is kind of a hypothetical construct representing
an individual’s degree of dislike or like for something.
There are two kinds of attitudes namely positive or
negative views of a person, place, thing, or event.
Attitude also involves biases, prejudices, appreciation,
and the state of readiness in acting and reacting. It is
kinds of the variable inferred from behaviors both
nonverbal and verbal responses. The concept of
attitudes always relate to how individuals think, act and
behave. There should be strong implications for the
students, teachers, the groups with which individual
relates and the whole school system. Attitude is created
as the result of learning experiences such as parents’,
teachers, and friends’ opinion.
Eagly and Chaiken in Karr (2011) defined
that attitude as the representative of the psychological
tendency expressed by evaluating a specific entity of
favor and disfavor. Similar to Rokeach in Karr (2011)
stating that the concept of attitude is essential to the
psychology of personality. Attitude was theorized as
comprising of three components such as a cognitive,
affective and behavioral component.
Furthermore, Jain (2015) stated that
attitude is an important factor in teaching learning
process. Attitude is a characteristic of set of conditions
that are symptomatic to the individual capacity to
obtain with some knowledge or skill or a set of
response, specific training in a given field (Bingam in
Jain, 2015). Henceforth, it is really useful for teacher to
understand students’ attitude to create a good teaching
learning process.
To conclude, attitude is complex mental
state including affective, cognitive, and behavioral
aspects of an individual toward another place, person,
thing or event. According to Eagly and Chaiken in Jain
(2015), affective component is in the relation with to
what the participant feels concerning the attitudinal
object. There are several components of affective
namely likeness, confidence, anxiety, and motivation.
Cognitive aspect regards with the individual’s opinion
(belief/disbelief) on the attitudinal object. It includes
beliefs, thoughts, and evaluation. Behavioral aspect of
attitude regards with verbal/non-verbal behavioral
tendency by an individual comprising of actions or
noticeable responses to attitudinal objects. The attitude
is able to be either positive or negative.
2. Method
This research aimed at exploring the students’
attitude toward Quizizz for assessment whether or not it
would reduce the students’ test anxiety. This study was
conducted in English course and the subject grammar
structure. The respondents of this research were
university students. There were 14 students participated
in this research. Furthermore, the sample selected based
on some criteria which is it is called purposive
sampling. According to Arikunto in Suryabrata (2003),
purposive sampling is the method of choosing sample
by taking subject not based on the level or area, but
based on the particular purpose. The sample of the
study were the students who got good score in English
structure subject.
The empirical data were gained through
observation, in-depth interview and questionnaire. The
observation showed the condition of the class during
teaching learning process and the questionnaire showed
students’ opinion about the use of Quizizz for
assessment. Additionally, in-depth interview showed
detail opinion of the respondents about the use of

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Quizizz for assessment. It was used to be a verbal
justifications for the respondents for what the
researcher missed as conducting observation in
classroom (Widodo in Sumardi, 2017). The data were
analyzed qualitatively as followed with interpretative
enterprise.
3. Result and Discussion
a. Result
1) Students’ test anxiety Category
Test is probably affectionate to students’
psychological aspect namely anxiety. The students’ test
anxiety is able to investigate by using questionnaires
adopted from Richard Driscoll which is proved valid by
several experts. Thus, the researcher decided using this
questionnaires. The test anxiety scales are categorized
into 6 categories namely Comfortably low test anxiety,
Normal or average test anxiety, High normal test
anxiety, Moderately high, High test anxiety, and
Extremely high anxiety.
There are 10 items which the
researcher gave to the participants to know the category
of students’ test anxiety. From those 10 items deployed,
there are two item aspects namely Incapacity and
Worry. The items indicated with Incapacity (poor
cognitive processing and memory loss) are the items
number 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 10 and the items indicated with
Worry (catastrophizing) are the items 2, 7, 3, 9.
From the data collected by the researcher with
questionnaire, the researchers could categorized the
students’ test anxiety. The data is as follows.
From the data collected, the mean score of the all
items is 3.05. To know the meaning of the score, the
researcher use the theory from Richard Driscoll (2007).
Table 3. The score of students’ test anxiety
No. Items Mean
1. The closer I am to a major exam, the
harder it is for me to concentrate on the
material.
3.214
2. When I study, I worry that I will not
remember the material on the exam.
2.857
3. During important exams, I think that I
am doing awful or that I may fail.
3
4. I lose focus on important exams, and I
cannot remember material that I knew
before the exam.
2.714
5. I finally remember the answer to exam
questions after the exam is already
over.
3.214
6. I worry so much before a major exam
that I am too worn out to do my best on
3.214
No. Items Mean
the exam.
7. I feel out of sorts or not really myself
when I take important exams.
2.857
8. I find that my mind sometimes
wanders when I am taking important
exams.
3
9. After an exam, I worry about whether I
did well enough.
3.214
10.
I struggle with writing assignments, or
avoid them as long as I can. I feel that
whatever I do will not be good enough.
3.214
TOTAL
3.05
Table 4. Category of test anxiety
Richard Driscoll (2007)
Mean
score
Category of test anxiety
1.0—1.9 Comfortably low test anxiety
2.0—2.5 Normal or average test anxiety
2.5—2.9 High normal test anxiety
3.0—3.4 Moderately high (some items rated
4=high
3.5—3.9 High test anxiety (half or more of
the items rated 4=high)
4.0—5.0 Extremely high anxiety (items rated
4=high and 5=extreme)
The score of students’ test anxiety obtained 3.05
and as it was reflected to the category of test anxiety
from Richard Driscoll (2007), it was categorized into
Moderately high test anxiety because the score was in
the range of 3.0—3.4. It means students still had any
anxiety as they faced examination or test. Furthermore,
the researcher would elaborate the score to be more
meaningful.
Students felt that they could not get better
understanding in answering questions in a test and they
assumed that they had a bad memory in recalling what
they have learnt as facing a test or examination. It can
be analyzed from questionnaires. Several students
would loss concentration as the examination was closer
(M=3.214) and they would remember as some answers
to questions in a test after they completed the test
(M=3.214). It caused them disappointed. Additionally,
students’ mind would wander as they took important
examination (M=3). Regarded with writing assignment,
students would lovely avoid as long as they could

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because they assumed that they felt whatever they did
would not be good enough (M=3.214) and more
students were worry so much before a major exam that
they were too worn out to do their best on the exam
(M=3.214). In addition, Students would not dominantly
lose focus on the exam and would remember what they
have learnt before (M=2.714).
Furthermore, students tended to be worry after
facing examinations because they thought whether or
not they did well enough on the exam (M=3.214). They
also felt out of sorts or not really themselves when they
took important exams (M=2.857). However, it was not
dominant as well as when students studied, they would
worry that they would not remember the material on the
exam (M=2.857). At last, students thought that they
were doing awful or that they might fail during the
exam (M=3).
2) Students’ attitudes toward Quizizz employment
in the test
There are 7 items for the questionnaires including
tree aspects (Affective, Cognitive and Behavior) to
know whether students have positive or negative
attitudes toward the Quizizz employment in a test.
Table 5. Students’ attitude toward game elements to
reduce test anxiety
Items Mean
Students are interested in doing the
test due to Quizizz employment
4.286
Students are confident in doing the
test due to Quizizz employment
3.429
Students get more motivation in doing
the test due to Quizizz
4.071
Students can improve their skills due
to Quizizz employment in a test
4.429
Students believe that Quizizz
employment is good to reduce test
anxiety
3.786
Quizizz employment helps students to
overcome the test anxiety
3.929
Students tend to do a test with Quizizz 3.643
TOTAL 3.94
Affective aspects are indicated with item
number 1, 2 and 3. Cognitive aspects are indicated
with items number 4, 5 and 6. Then, behavior
aspect is indicated with number 7. For affective
aspect, it includes students’ interest (M=4.28),
confidence (M=3.429) and motivation (M= 4.07)
related to the use of Quizizz for assessment. On the
other hand, cognitive aspect includes improving
skills (M=4.429), students’ believe for test anxiety
solution (M=3.929) and students’ believe for test
anxiety reduction (3.929). At last, the behavior
aspect includes the students preference (M=3.643).
After all data collected, the grand mean was
obtained for students attitude toward Quizizz to
reduce test anxiety (M=3.94). However, the
researcher also conducted interview to gain more
data by asking 6 questions to students. They are as
follows:
What is your opinion about Quizizz for
assessment?
Quizizz was good thing in a test because they
would be able to enjoy the test. Many people would
like it including children.
Do you think elements of game make you
motivated to do the test?
The elements of game are good because we are
like playing game but in fact we are on the
exam. As we answered the questions, we
will compete with time. The faster we answer and
correct, the better score we will get.
Additionally, there are memes with funny pictures
and writings showing right after we answer
question and it makes us motivated.
Do you think Quizizz employment for the
assessment make you confident to do the test?
We are able to be confident to answer the
questions as we can get points as we answer
correctly. It can make us challenged to compete
with our friends who are among us achieving more
points in a test or exam.
Are you feeling anxious during the test?
We are not anxious enough in doing the test
because the test looks like game. So, we like to do
it as if playing game.
Would Quizizz help you learn more about the
subject of the test?
We can improve my skill by using test port which is
available. We learn from our mistakes because

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IJER, 4 (1), 2019, 22-32
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the test report shows our mistakes in answering the
questions in details.
Why do you prefer Quizizz rather than paper-based
test?
Quizizz is flexible for us to do the test because we
can do the test as we like. It is not like the test with
paper. We should be in the class to do the test.
3) Game elements preference
The items of game elements above is about the
students’ preference toward game elements in Quizizz
whether or not they are engaged with the test. There
are six game elements which researcher use for the
questionnaires because these six game elements are
integrated in Quizizz. Thus, what were not in the
Quizizz was not employed. The six game elements
could be seen in the following table.
Table 6. Students’ preference toward game
elements in test engagement
Game elements Mean
Leader board 3.714
Time restriction 3.357
Meme 3.357
Profile 3.429
Test report 3.929
Points 4.357
TOTAL 3.69
From the data above mean score of collected
items is 3.69. It means the six elements contributed in
test engagement. Rama (2017) stated that game design
elements had specific psychological effects such as
enriching the experience, increasing intrinsic
motivation and improving player engagement. To break
down, the highest mean score for the game elements is
Points which obtained (4.357). Furthermore, it is
followed with Test report (3.929), Leader Board
(3.714), Profile (3.49) and the last rank were Meme and
Time restriction which both obtained same score
(3.357). Those are the rank for students game element
preference in Quizizz.
b. Discussion
Based on the obtained score for the test
anxiety, it indicated that students still had test anxiety
which was considered moderately high because the
score was in the range of 3.0—3.4 referred to the table
of category of test anxiety from Richard Driscoll
(2007). The test could influence students’ performance
as they faced examination because of feeling worry if
the major exam came closer, felling pessimistic that
they would fail the exam, losing concentration due to
the tension of situation. According to (Ergene, 2003)
Test contributed to negative influence to students by
having worry and tension. Thus, this situation became
the problem for the students’ if they did not have any
treatment to reduce the test anxiety. It is in line with
(Ergene, 2003) test anxiety became problem for
students and possibly considered a serious problem.
Furthermore, students should perceive treatment to
reduce students’ test anxiety. Thus, students are able to
be successful in doing the test or exam.
In this study, the researcher also investigated
the use of Quizizz in a test or exam by the teacher to
decrease students’ test anxiety. The researcher used
attitude indicator to know students’ opinion and feeling
toward Quizizz employed by the teacher. From the
questionnaire, a student had positive opinion about
Quizizz for assessment. He said that he could enjoy the
Quizizz. As it is designed into game-like by using
gamification. Landers & Callan (2011) give definition
on gamification as the use of elements associated with
game such as game mechanics to an educational
purposes. Most of the students were interested in doing
the test by using Quizizz as it showed on the
questionnaire for students’ interest (M=4. 286)
Students also felt that they had high
motivations in doing the test well (M=4.071). It
happens because of the element games which are
available in the application. A student said that the
elements of game were good because it was like game.
The elements helped them to answer as fast as possible
with the consequences that they would perceive
annoying funny meme as they answered incorrectly and
in the opposite. According to Miller (2014) & Joyce
(2010) Meme is a concept or catchphrase or image that
spread viral over the internet which sometimes contain
joke. They could compete with time as time restriction
is some task or challenge have specific time lime
(Groh, 2012).
As result of high motivation, it influences the
students’ confidence in doing the test or exam. Avtgis
(2001) stated that there is relationship between
students’ motivation and students’ confidence. They
were confident (M= 3.429) due to the points which will
be obtained directly after they answer the questions.
The points will be dynamic depended on how fast the
answer. Thus, the higher points will make students
more confident. It makes students try to encourage to
do the test (Groh, 2012).

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IJER, 4 (1), 2019, 22-32
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Because students had a positive confidence toward
the test with Quizizz, it is automatically reduce students
anxiety (M= 3.786). They assumed that the test is like
game thus they enjoyed doing test as if they play game.
Desrochers et.al. (2017) stated that a game approach is
a kind of assessment which may students’ motivation
compared to traditional testing. Most of Indonesian
students like playing game. It is indicated that
Indonesian players of Mobile legends are almost 50
percent of 4 million players all over the world (Sunarto,
et. al, 2019).
Besides enhancing students’ motivation and
confidence, the Quizizz also helps students improving
their skills related to the subject tested (M=4.429).
They took the advantages of test report which they
would get it short after the test was over. The system of
Quizizz will record and analyze students answer really
fast in detail including the time taken to answer the test,
the points and showing the incorrect answer students
had. Students learnt from the mistake and try to get
over it. Thus, in another test they can answer the same
questions correctly. Elmahdi et.al. (2018) stated that
immediate feedback leads to improve learning process
as the immediate assessment improve students’
participation; guarantee equal participation
opportunities, save the learning time and create exciting
learning process.
From all results in the form of score and arguments
from students related the items in questionnaires, the
most of the students tend to use Quizizz (M=3.643)
because it has lots of advantages as mentioned in
advance. Furthermore, the test with Quizizz is flexible
to do. It means the students can do the test wherever
they are at in same time. Karaman (2011) said that
convenience of the test came from the place and time
flexibility, self-control and less anxiety. In addition, all
assessment should be valid, fair, reliable and flexible
(Booth et al., 2003). It is not like paper based test
students need to be in the class to do the test.
Furthermore, as the data showed that students have
positive attitude towards Quizizz the researcher
investigated what kinds of game element that they
prefer most because what made students have a positive
attitude is because of the game elements integrated in
the test. This is the rank of the game elements which
students preferred.
Figure 2. Game elements/game components ranking.
The above game elements ranking was
ordered based on the function of each element
contributing to the test engagement which students
felt during the test. To be more understandable, it
could be referred to the students’ opinions on
students’ attitude towards Quizizz in reducing test
anxiety.
4. Conclusion
The result of the study is that test caused
students having moderately high test anxiety. The
symptoms of the anxiety are able to see as lose focus
and concentration in doing the exam. They used to feel
that they would fail the test. However, the teacher had a
strategy to reduce the test anxiety by using gamification
based assessment and the application used was Quizizz.
From the data analyzed that students were prefer to do
the test with Quizizz because they could enjoy the test
like playing game. Furthermore, the elements of game
are really important in this context because it made the
test look like game with the all the dynamic and
mechanic of the gamification. It can be drawn inference
that students will engage with what they like and love
to do. Consequently, the teachers’ duty is to create
something related to educational purposes for students
with what they are interested in. Thus, the chance to
achieve the purposes will be high.

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IJER, 4 (1), 2019, 22-32
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Acknowledgement
The writer would like to thank Dr. Sumardi, Dr. Abdul
Asib and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful
suggestions on this article.
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