EDUCATION TEST ANXIETY IN STUDENTS by Sandra McCleaster, RRT T
est taking is an unavoidable fact of life for the American school system. Students are routinely tested throughout
course curricula. Their test scores then become the basis for a number of important educational decisions. Will the student be promoted? Graduate? Will the school be funded? The United States is reeling from a steady decline in stan-
dardized test scores of the nation’s elementary school students. More and more pressure is being applied to the national school system to document its success, with the net result being that standardized tests have become the end, rather than means to an end, in America’s elementary and high schools. So it’s no surprise that this emphasis on performance is translating to an increase in test apprehension in students at all levels. And time and again, research has shown that overly apprehensive students simply don’t perform well on tests. Considered in that light, is it any won- der that pressure to perform well on tests has resulted in a well- documented condition educators have named "test anxiety"? One widely accepted definition of test-anxiety is "an unpleas-
ant feeling or emotional state that has both physiological and be- havioral components and that is experienced in formal testing or other evaluative situations." (Dusek, 1980). Test anxiety can run the gamut of superficial nervousness to sweaty palms to a "wake- up-in-the-night-drenched in-sweat" emotional state of being. Test anxiety was first studied in the 1920s and since that time
educational researchers have developed a laundry list of theories to explain the phenomenon. Nonetheless it continues to be a per- vasive issue, crossing all levels of the educational spectrum. Some curiosities: Test anxiety stretches across all socio-eco-
nomic groups and ethnic backgrounds. Even though it’s believed that girls and boys experience test anxiety equally, the genders appear to deal with it quite differently. Boys are much more likely to be defensive when questioned about perceived test anx- iety, whereas girls are far more likely to admit to their anxiety. Like many bad things in life, text anxiety is being traced back
to "poor parenting." Several educational theorists (SB Sarason, et al, 1960) believe that test anxiety is a personality characteristic that develops during a child’s pre-school years as a result of par- ents’ unrealistic demands or overly high expectations for their children’s performance. This includes a failure of parents to pro- vide emotional support to the child in problem-solving situations. Whether you buy into this theory or not, the fact remains.
Thousands of students suffer from test anxiety. Their test scores rarely reflect what they have learned relative to course content. Rather, their test scores are a reflection of the degree of compo- sure they are able to muster during the testing process. As they
16 Focus Journal Fall 2011
progress to higher grade levels, these high-anxious students be- come yet more anxious and the negative gap between test anxiety and measures of achievement becomes wider. Eventually these test-anxious kids work their way through the
primary and elementary school systems. Many end up in the col- lege setting. One researcher (RN Suinn) estimated that 25% of col- lege students have performance-debilitating test anxiety. Educators know them all too well and understand that many of these stu- dents’ academic performance deficiencies are really the net result of poor test-coping skills. I don’t think we fully realize what the overall effects of test
anxiety really are on students’ learning and performance. One major harmful effect of stress in any evaluative situation is that it runs interference. According to one theory, the student’s attention in the testing situation gets torn between the relevant responses and the element of worry. The higher the level of initial anxiety, the less the student is able to focus on test relevant responses, as more and more of the attention span is eaten up by the physiolog- ical and psychological effects of worry. Study habits and exam-taking skills of high test-anxious stu-
dents are frequently poor. Which begs the question: Which is cause and which is effect? Do high anxious test-takers have poorer abilities and study skills to start with, or does their high-anxiety state simply result in poorer measures of achievement? It seems intuitive that at least part of their performance deficiency may be due to less knowledge of relevant material. Consequently the anx- iety becomes the end result of poor performance. Thus the vicious cycle begins. Not only does the anxiety produce poor perform- ance, but the poor performance produces more anxiety. Like it or not, allied health and other professional disciplines
use standardized competency exams as the basis for earning the long-coveted credential. These tests are notoriously stress-produc- ing and not surprisingly, many report disappointing pass rates. The sad irony of this of course, is that at best, standardized tests are an artificial context for demonstrating knowledge. These board exam type tests may be psychometrically sound and possess content va- lidity, but do little or nothing to determine if a person will be a ca- pable health care provider or other professional. The key to success on standardized tests is "knowing how
to take the test". Good test-taking skills can compensate for stress- induced deficits, but having good test-taking skills doesn’t elimi- nate the test-anxious student. Some students are able to channel their anxiety in a productive positive way and although they may become nervous wrecks in the test-taking process, their test-taking skills can still carry them through.
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