Test Anxiety Causes and Impacts on University Students

This study explores the causes and impacts of test anxiety among university students, including its effects on mental and physical health. It discusses both positive and negative impacts and factors that contribute to anxiety.

Self Regulated Learning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Test anxiety causes underperform to University students in their examination..........................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Test anxiety can be defined as psychological behaviours over arousal and tension (von
der Embse & et.al., (2018).). This study is going to show some causes which lead test anxiety
among university students along with their impacts on their mental and physical health. It will
also show both positive and negative impacts as well as factors which create worry and tension
among students.
Test anxiety causes underperform to University students in their examination
In the context of anxiety it can be said that it is a behavioural changes and response of
people towards something threatening in the environment. It varies situations to situations and
person to person Iqbal & Parveen, (2018). It can be said that anxiety is being considered as a
positive tool by some authors and by some authors it is considered as negative tool. Test and
study anxiety is common among students because it is the test because they think that it is the
test which decides their career and will help them out in getting employment. They think that if
they become fail than what will they do in the further studies, their life and their career so, it
creates fear and anxiety among them. It can have both positive and negative impacts on results of
students.
In the context of negative impacts, Kapitanoff & Pandey,(2017) stated that test anxiety
can become the reason of lower performance and grade of students. Students become depressed
they think negative all the time and thus negativity and anxiety create several problems. They
cannot focus on their studies which lower their marks than others. On the other hand, Harris &
et.al., (2019)argues and stated that anxiety leads several positive changes in students. They said
that physical symptoms of anxiety do not interfere in their exam performance and it completely
depends upon the nature of students, There are several students who focus more on studies die to
anxiety and have fear of failure in exams. This focus makes them able to not only crack exams
but also have higher marks in tests.
In this context, some factors are being discussed by Hadi & et.al., (2018) in order to
make understand people and students that they can make positive effects of test anxiety. They
said that lack of preparation; worries about past, pressure from parents, past situation or

experience of failure create anxiety among students. So, it is important for University students to
believe in their own performance and increase self-esteem and attitude of doing anything can
make them able to pass examination. Poor time management is one of the main reasons of
anxiety as there are many students who are lack in this skill and procrastinate. So, by not
focusing on unnecessary things like lack of academic sources, informations, students can
changes their anxiety in a positive manner. In addition, they also stated that students often think
about other students as what they have been doing and they will lead them and this attitude make
them able to focus on studies more than other students and get great marks. Facilitating anxiety
helps student in getting higher marks in exams or tests and also get employment opportunities in
the future.
Otterpohl, Lazar & Stiensmeier-Pelster, (2019), stated that anxiety does not only lower marks of
students in their tests but also have several physical and mental affects on them. Some mental
and physical affects which students face ad suffer include: headache, mood swings, emotions
changes, some reaction in body like tension, problems in performing other activities in a normal
way, having conflicts with friends and family members etc. They also said that students who are
underperformed and have not prepared for studies they are more likely to become worried and
have test anxiety. Due to this, they think that if they did not do anything yet than what can they
do now and this thinking lowers their marks and have negative impacts on them. So, it can be
said that test anxiety have only negative impacts. In this argument, stated that students who have
test anxiety are often those who are high achieving students and they also believe that anxiety is
the main key of their success and getting higher marks. They just have worry as if they did not
get higher marks than before and others than what will they do as it can affect their set objectives
and further studies. But they also said that if they study without having feared then they
procrastinates which can become reason of lower marks. So, it is important for them to have test
anxiety and worry of achieving highest marks.
Gursoy & Arman, (2016) shows some causes and reasons of test anxiety and why
students have test anxiety and how it impacts on their health such as: the pressure of time test is
one of the main cause because many students do not prepare for studies on the time so, they
think that feel pressure of time test. Poor study skills and lack of ability to learn something for
long lasting can increases anxiety. There are many student who prepare well but they think that

they do not remember previous learned things and materials and it consumes a lot of time and as
time of tests come near they feel nervous and anxious. They also feel that they have lack of
understanding materials and due to these thoughts they compare themselves with other students
who spend less time than them and still get good marks. This has permanent impacts on their
mental health and at every stage they feel that their fate is not good and they cannot succeed. So,
from this it can be said that thoughts is the main factor which leads anxiety and it also decides
whether anxiety has positive impact or negative.
On the other hand, Akbar, Sofyan & Damayanti, (2018) stated that feeling of lack control
and fear of low marks is main factors. But these factors do not have negative impacts on their
marks and their health but work as like a motivator. In this context, they also said that fear of
getting lower marks is one of the main key of getting higher marks in tests or in examination.
Other main factor which leads anxiety among University students and which has positive effects
is: high expectations of their own performance. Expectations also have both positive and
negative impacts. When students or people have expectations with others than it have negative
impacts because their performance depends on them. But when people have expectations from
themselves than it have positive impacts.
In the context of relation between test anxiety and task difficulty, Chang & et.al., (2017)
stated that task difficulty and burden of study is one of the main reason and cause associated with
anxiety of test among university students. It has overall impact on the performance of students in
critical manner. In the positive context, it can be said that some students think that they will have
to more focus on their studies anf for that they spend more time. There is one factor which
motivate them is thinking of increasing knowledge. They think that by completing all difficult
tasks they can take opportunities of getting higher marks and being in the competition. On the
other hand, some students think that they cannot complete this difficult task and this thinking
makes changes.

CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that task anxiety among university
students have both positive and negative impacts as it only depend upon their thinking as how
they think. It has also shown some factors which leads test anxiety.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
von der Embse, N. & et.al., (2018). Test anxiety effects, predictors, and correlates: A 30-year
meta-analytic review. Journal of Affective Disorders. 227. 483-493.
Iqbal, A., & Parveen, S. (2018). Impact of Test Anxiety on Paper Management and Students’
Performance. European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences: Proceedings. 7(3
(s)). pp-30.
Kapitanoff, S., & Pandey, C. (2017). Stereotype threat, anxiety, instructor gender, and
underperformance in women. Active Learning in Higher Education. 18(3). 213-229.
Harris, R. B. & et.al., 2019). Can Test Anxiety Interventions Alleviate a Gender Gap in an
Undergraduate STEM Course?. CBE—Life Sciences Education. 18(3). ar35.
Hadi, M. A. & et.al., (2018). Impact of test anxiety on pharmacy students’ performance in
Objective Structured Clinical Examination: a cross‐sectional survey. International
Journal of Pharmacy Practice. 26(2). 191-194.
Otterpohl, N., Lazar, R., & Stiensmeier-Pelster, J. (2019). The dark side of perceived positive
regard: When parents’ well-intended motivation strategies increase students’ test
anxiety. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 56. 79-90.
Gursoy, E., & Arman, T. (2016). Analyzing Foreign Language Test Anxiety among High School
Students in an EFL Context (Note 1). Journal of Education and Learning, 5(4), 190-200.
Akbar, A., Sofyan, D., & Damayanti, I. (2018). FACTORS CAUSING FOREIGN LANGUAGE
ANXIETY (FLA) IN SPEAKING. Journal of English Education and Teaching, 2(2),
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Chang, H. C. & et.al., (2017). Examining the relationships between foreign language anxiety and
attention during conversation tasks. In Innovations in Smart Learning (pp. 1-11).
Springer, Singapore.
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