UNIVERSITY STUDY DEMONSTRATES EXAM ANXIETY
Students who worry about their exam performance are more likely to do badly than those who are less anxious, according to new research by Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom.
However, the study showed, if young people want to perform better on tests, they can be taught to manage their anxiety, ensuring they focus on the task at hand rather than become distracted with anxiety.
These are the findings of the latest studies investigating how students feel before and during exams, how they cope with stress, and subsequent testing results, which was recently shared at the British Educational Research Association’s annual conference.
Researchers at Edge Hill University and the University of South Australia have being working with researchers from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, England’s largest GCSE exam board, to investigate links between anxiety and exam grades.
Researcher Dr Dave Putwain, Reader in Education at Edge Hill University, said: “There is no doubt that a high degree of worry over one’s performance, or the consequences of one´s performance, has a detrimental effect on GCSE results. Our study, which was controlled for prior performance, and also how good students were at dealing with exam pressure, found that increased worry still predicted lower achievement.”
The first study involved surveying 325 students from eight secondary schools in the North-West in the weeks leading up to their final GCSE exams. The teenagers were asked whether they agreed with 44 statements about their possible anxieties concerning exams, how confident they felt in dealing with this stress, and about strategies they might use to cope with it. Their comments included feeling nervous, the consequences of ‘failing’ and how they would be viewed by others if they performed badly.
“Our research found that worrying about exams significantly correlated with relatively bad GCSE performance,” said Dr Putwain. “However, pupils who acknowledged anxiety and reacted to it by ensuring they prepared well, tended to do better than those who did not.”
However, the study showed, if young people want to perform better on tests, they can be taught to manage their anxiety, ensuring they focus on the task at hand rather than become distracted with anxiety.
These are the findings of the latest studies investigating how students feel before and during exams, how they cope with stress, and subsequent testing results, which was recently shared at the British Educational Research Association’s annual conference.
Researchers at Edge Hill University and the University of South Australia have being working with researchers from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, England’s largest GCSE exam board, to investigate links between anxiety and exam grades.
Researcher Dr Dave Putwain, Reader in Education at Edge Hill University, said: “There is no doubt that a high degree of worry over one’s performance, or the consequences of one´s performance, has a detrimental effect on GCSE results. Our study, which was controlled for prior performance, and also how good students were at dealing with exam pressure, found that increased worry still predicted lower achievement.”
The first study involved surveying 325 students from eight secondary schools in the North-West in the weeks leading up to their final GCSE exams. The teenagers were asked whether they agreed with 44 statements about their possible anxieties concerning exams, how confident they felt in dealing with this stress, and about strategies they might use to cope with it. Their comments included feeling nervous, the consequences of ‘failing’ and how they would be viewed by others if they performed badly.
“Our research found that worrying about exams significantly correlated with relatively bad GCSE performance,” said Dr Putwain. “However, pupils who acknowledged anxiety and reacted to it by ensuring they prepared well, tended to do better than those who did not.”
