A commonly used method to deal with students with exam anxiety in tertiary academic institutions is skills workshops. They suggest that Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is an ideal treatment method for treating test anxiety because it addresses all of these components.
University Wide Interventions
Students with test anxiety who present themselves in the counseling center are seen and counseled individually. The Student Guidance Units at the university recognize the importance of helping students with test anxiety.
The Aim of the Study
Because there is no data available on the effectiveness of the skills workshop, it cannot be concluded how effective it is for students and cannot be compared with other treatment methods.
Relevance of the study
It is therefore important that test anxiety is treated early so that these children do not grow up fearing tests. It is essential that test anxiety is addressed as it has a negative effect on academic performance as well as students' self-confidence in general.
Hypotheses
Conclusion
First, anxiety and test anxiety are defined, followed by a review of some important factors of test anxiety, such as the importance of the test for the student, test preparation, test performance, student intelligence, their gender, as well as coping with problems. the methods they use because these are central questions in test anxiety research. This chapter also discusses the various methods used in the treatment of test anxiety and concludes with a discussion of the theoretical framework used to understand test anxiety in this study, as well as the treatment method associated with this theory.
Definition of Anxiety
An individual with test anxiety experiences both physiological and cognitive symptoms in the test situation. Early research on test anxiety was based on the assumption that it is a one-dimensional phenomenon.
Factors Modulating Test Anxiety Levels .1 Test Significance
Intelligence
In a study by Zeidner and Schleyer (1999), it was hypothesized that gifted students, regardless of gender and school, would have lower levels of test anxiety than those who are not gifted. This was based on the assumption that students who are intellectually superior do not have a past experience of academic failure, which increases their confidence in test situations and thus reduces negative self-reports.
Gender Differences
A study by Zeidner and Schleyer (1999) showed that females reported higher levels of test anxiety than males in both countries. El-Zahhar (1991) argues that the reason for gender differences in test anxiety lies in the fact that males are more defensive compared to females.
Coping Methods
This could explain why some students with test anxiety use more task-oriented coping methods while others opt for less effective avoidance methods. Overall, findings indicated that high levels of test anxiety are predominantly associated with emotion-focused coping and avoidance (Stober, 2004). Therefore, it is important that students with test anxiety are aware of this and are taught coping methods that have been found to be effective.
Theoretical Framework
Interference Model
There is evidence that students with lower levels of test anxiety devote a greater proportion of their attention to the test and the tasks at hand (Sarason, 1980; Wine, 1980) as they lack the distracting negative self-preoccupations and the physical arousal. . From this perspective, interventions for test anxiety should focus on helping students redirect their attention to the test and not to their negative thoughts and negative self-talk. Those who take the cognitive approach to understanding test anxiety assume that thinking errors that occur during test situations are the primary source of anxiety.
Deficit Model
In addition to inadequate study skills, test-taking skills have also been identified as another area where deficits can lead to poor performance and even an increase in dropout rates (Carter, Wehby, Plank, Barton, & Lunsford, 2005). Students who are not equipped with the knowledge of how to tackle different test questions and how to manage their time during the test suffer the negative consequences of test anxiety. The Deficit Model.
Other Developments
He maintains that since humans have a limited capacity; irrelevant thoughts as well as preoccupation with the physiological responses during the test use up the cognitive capacity that should be reserved for the test, resulting in poor performance. He maintains that students with worry and emotionality as well as a skill deficit are more likely to perform worse on tests because they have more external elements that require cognitive capacity necessary for the test. This model will be discussed later in this chapter, as it is the model used for the understanding of test anxiety in this study due to its comprehensive nature as well as simplicity.
Conceptual Model of Test Anxiety
In another study, 62 students who were assessed as having speech anxiety were given stress vaccination training. Fontana, Hyra, Godfrey, and Cermak (1999) conducted a study examining the effectiveness of stress inoculation training procedures on anxiety among college students. Mentioned above are some of the studies that have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of stress vaccination training for a number of anxiety disorders.
Conclusion
In these types of designs, subjects are assigned to groups before or after completion of the pretest. In this case, the subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental groups and the control group after the pretest. In this study, this design made it possible to assess the participants' level of fear of failure, both before and after the interventions. The students in the psychology class were informed about the study and asked to volunteer.
The Facilitator
The three groups were randomly assigned to the three treatment groups which are Stress Inoculation Training, Skills Workshops and the wait list control group.
Instrumentation
Biographical Questionnaire
The TAS consists of 37 true or false items that assess subjects' reactions before, during, and after taking the test. According to Sarason (1973), scale revisions involved "pruning," meaning that correlated items were dropped. The correlation between the TAL and the TAS was high enough (0.82 to 0.83) to suggest that the two scales measure essentially the same construct (Spielberger, no date - Retrieved 01/22/06).
Procedure
Stress Inoculation Training
Participants were then guided through progressive muscle relaxation to help them cope with the physiological arousal of test anxiety. This session was also used to introduce problem-focused coping and cognitive restructuring. The fourth session was used to inform participants about the practical skills they need to help themselves cope better with tests so that they feel adequately prepared ahead of the test.
Skills Workshop
The participants talked about what their expectations were before the group, whether their expectations were met, and how they felt about being in the group. After the six-week delay, participants in the waitlist control group were invited to participate in the study. All three groups were asked not to divulge any information to other participants or anyone else about what they were doing in the study, as this could affect the results.
Presentation of results
Pre-treatment Data of the Test Anxiety Scale
Post-treatment Data of the Test Anxiety Scale
The data were further analyzed using ANOVA to ascertain whether there were any differences in anxiety levels between the three groups. The hypothesis was that students who receive the stress inoculation training will have lower levels of test anxiety than those who were in the skills workshop and that those who were in the skills workshop will have lower levels of test anxiety than those in the waiting list control group. . Also, all three means are significantly different after the intervention, which is not the case before the treatment was administered (as seen in Tables 3a, 3b and 3c).
Gender Differences
The results show that there was a 16% improvement in test anxiety scores for men after treatment, while women had a 23% improvement. In the current study, students who participated in either skills workshops or SIT showed improvement in test anxiety levels after treatment. This supports Sarason's (1981) contention that social support is a powerful stress buffer for students with test anxiety.
Effectiveness of the Skills Workshops
This is the mechanism that makes these workshops effective in treating test anxiety. However, previous research has suggested that high levels of test anxiety negatively affect students' academic performance in test situations (Zeidner & Schleyer, 1999) while low or moderate levels may be required to enhance performance (Mwamwenda, 1994). ). Another possibility is that men and women use different coping methods to deal with test anxiety.
Gender Differences and Response to Treatment
This could mean that there are as many men with exam fear as there are women. Men may not get the help they really need because they don't seek help because of a lack of insight into their problem, or they don't get the help they need because they are misdiagnosed by their counselors and other professionals. At the same time, counselors could gain invaluable knowledge about the male psyche that might make them less susceptible to debilitating test anxiety, which they could transfer to their clients to help them better cope with test anxiety.
Conclusion
Men generally have some reservations about therapy, although they may be willing to try it. Deering& Gannon (2005) also found similar results, leading this study to conclude that the women in this study gave more commitment to the treatment and thus reaped more benefits from it. It is therefore important that the clients are committed to the therapy and believe that it will help them to increase their benefit from therapy. This chapter concludes this study~An overview of the study, followed by a summary of the findings and limitations of SIT is presented.
Overview of the study
The Skills Workshop was aimed at teaching the students practical skills for test preparation as well as test taking. The study hypothesized that due to its inclusive nature, SIT is more effective than a Skills Workshop in treating test anxiety.
Summary of the findings
This can be problematic, as men with test anxiety may choose "easier" grades when they could handle the "harder" grades if they had sought help and treated the anxiety. There has previously been a lack of studies looking at the effectiveness of test anxiety treatment methods, especially the commonly used Skills Workshops. This study further emphasizes the need for treatment to be made available to students, as test anxiety has a negative effect on one's performance on tests as well as one's overall experience of higher education.
Limitations of Stress Inoculation Training and Recommendations
Limitations of the study
Direction for Future Research
This is because it is possible that cognitive restructuring alone is as effective as SIT as a whole in the treatment of test anxiety. A multivariate analysis of test anxiety and locus of control in study skills in first-time college students. 1991) Cultural and gender differences in test anxiety, traits, and excitability: Egypt, Brazil, and the United States. Associates Inc. 1994) Gender differences in test anxiety scores and academic achievement among South African university postgraduate students. South African Journal of Psychology.
I MALE
While taking an important exam, I thought about how much brighter the other students were than me. If I had known that I would be taking an intelligence test, I would have felt relaxed and confident beforehand. Thinking about the grade I might get in a course interferes with my learning and test performance.
CONSENT FORM
I understand that I am free to withdraw from the project at any limit, should I so desire. My participation is completely voluntary, and I have the right to withdraw from the study at any time.
