Assessment of Test Anxiety and its Correlation with Academic Performance among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Globally, around one in every three medical students suffer from anxiety. Test anxiety is a physical, mental and emotional reaction to threat of failure in exams and consists of worry and perception as components and it may lead to poor academic performance. Objective: To assess the level of test anxiety and its correlation with academic performance among undergraduate students. Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted from 1st September to 15th December, 2022 with purposive sampling technique to collect the data from the undergraduate students at Sohail University, Karachi. Westside Test Anxiety Scale questionnaire was used. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney and Spearman’s correlation were measured. Results: 44% of the participants were male, 94% were single, 50% were nursing students and 57.5% were 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students. Majority of the respondents (70.5%) were suffering from high to extremely high-test anxiety whereas (17.5 %) participants had mild to moderate level of anxiety. The significant association was found between test anxiety and study program (p-value 0.021). The weak reciprocal correlation coefficient was found between academic performance and test anxiety (r = -.473). Conclusions: Findings of this study suggest that 88% of undergraduates had high to extremely high-test anxiety. A significant link between the study program and level of anxiety and a significant correlation were also found between academic performance and test anxiety. The causes and contributing elements of anxiety must be addressed. The test anxiety puts the undergraduates on high risk for learning deficits and unhealthy consequences.