Hamza Alkowatli, Shariq Khan*, Yusuf Bhyat, Mahra Abdullah, Moza Alsuwaidi
Introduction: Anxiety is widespread amongst university students. One of the most common anxiety types considered to be present among students, as one of the most pervasive reactions that individuals have to stress, is test anxiety. Prevalence exists amongst the students in UAE, Middle East, and other parts of the world. Demographic characteristics of this disorder include age, gender, program, social status, income, parental pressure, competition, time management, study skills, receiving good grades, lifestyle and behavioral factors.
Materials & Methods: A cross sectional study of 614 participants of Gulf Medical University in Ajman, UAE was performed. A standardized questionnaire will be used to assess the level of anxiety among the students. To determine the factors, another questionnaire will be prepared after a thorough literature review. After getting the ethical approval, validation will be done by three experts in the field.
Results: Overall out of the 614 participants in the research, 82.6% of the students have test anxiety and 17.4% do not have test anxiety. The difference in self-esteem is significant with increase in age. More students who are over the age of 20 have a higher level of test anxiety compared to those under the age of 20 (88.6% and 11.4% respectively). We also found significant results in relating test anxiety to various factors like age, gender, nationality, program, year of study, hostel living, factors, and coping mechanisms. Ranking of medical fields in order of importance as perceived by society is from highest to lowest with Phar.D. (ranked 1), DMD (ranked 2), BBMS (ranked 3), ADPCS (ranked 4), MBBS (ranked 5), and BPT (ranked 6).
Conclusion: We found out that students with high test anxiety accounted for majority of our sample size (82.6%), with 17.4% of the students having no test anxiety. The students over the age of 20 have a higher test anxiety than students under the age of 20. More than 50% of students don’t have concerns about how others will view them if they did poorly on exams. 65.1% of students don’t have concerns regarding their own self-image. The majority of the students (61.7%) don’t have concerns about their future security. More than 50% don’t have concerns about not being prepared for a test. 64.2% of students don’t have bodily reactions when they experience test anxiety. More than 50% of students don’t have thought disruptions during exams. The majority of students (57.5%) don’t have general anxiety about taking a test. Low percentage of students are finding the hostel as an uncomfortable place for studying. However, higher percentage of students are having problems with roommate. There is no significant association between feeling homesick and test anxiety. High percentage of students are finding the distance from hostel to the university as a factors for test anxiety. More students think that procrastination does not correlate with test anxiety while others feel that lack of money plays a huge factor in test anxiety. Coping strategies used by the students to reduce test anxiety. Above 80% of students tend to avoid thinking before exams (83.2). 73.2% of students try to get a good night sleep before the exam while 26.7% don’t do that. 79.1% of students are developing good study habits and only 76.5% are reviewing past papers. Other ways were used to reduce anxiety such as having positive mental attitude (76.2%), not comparing to others (72.3%), having nutritious snack before exam (67.1%), making study schedule (69.7%), Practice questions (78.8%) and engage in relaxation techniques (65.3%). According to the factors students who don’t give the exams great importance have a higher percentage of test anxiety, students who don’t think that nervousness prevents good performance have a higher percentage of test anxiety, students who experience blanking of mind during exams have a higher percentage of test anxiety. Students who organize well have a lesser percentage of test anxiety, difficult questions don’t cause the students to get higher levels of test anxiety, surprise exams cause the majority of students to experience test anxiety, there is insufficient family income doesn’t cause test anxiety and family pressure doesn’t cause test anxiety. High levels of test anxiety aren’t caused by negative thoughts, concerns about own self-image isn’t a cause for test anxiety, high levels of test anxiety aren’t caused by fear of failure, when students compare themselves to others it doesn’t increase their test anxiety and family responsibilities don’t cause test anxiety.