Abstract
Pathological anxiety towards an exam intensifies psychological distress and reduces academic motivation. The present study aimed to identify the prevalence of test anxiety and psychological distress. Additionally, the present study examined the extent to which test anxiety predicts psychological distress and academic motivation. Westside Text Anxiety Scale (WTAS), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10) and Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) were administered among 154 first year undergraduate medical students attending a private university in Malaysia. The results showed that 18.2 (n = 28) percent of medical students experienced test anxiety and 53.9 (n = 83) percent of them were psychological distressed. Further, results showed that test anxiety positively correlated with psychological distress and amotivation. Test anxiety is a significant predictor of psychological distress and amotivation. Over all, medical students who experience test anxiety tend to experience high psychological distress and amotivation in their studies.
Highlights
Test anxiety is a widespread phenomenon when an extreme nervousness arising from an anxiety-inducing test situation prevents one from demonstrating their true potential and lowers performance especially in the educational environment (Karatas, Alci, & Aydin, 2013)
First year medical students are more vulnerable for test anxiety as they are required to do lot of presentation in front of their peers in Problem Based Learning (PBL), Mock Objective Subjective Clinical Examination (MOSCE), demonstrate how to manage difficult clients and explain physiology and anatomy of the body in the lab (Dyrbye, Thomas, Harper, Massie, Power, & Eacker, 2009; Sherina, Rampal, & Kaneson, 2004)
Data yielded that 28 medical students (18.2%) exhibited test anxiety while 126 medical students (81.8%) were reported to have normal anxiety
Summary
Test anxiety is a widespread phenomenon when an extreme nervousness arising from an anxiety-inducing test situation prevents one from demonstrating their true potential and lowers performance especially in the educational environment (Karatas, Alci, & Aydin, 2013). A striking number of undergraduate students who experience test anxiety often encounter deferment of semester or discontinuation in their studies (Karatas et al, 2013; Schaefer, Matthes, Pfitzer, & Kohler, 2007). Test anxiety is considered as one of the major problems among medical students as it most likely causes underachievement, low performance, demotivation and psychological distress (Loh, Kavitha, & Saroja, 2008; Rana & Mahmood, 2010). Researchers evaluated that between 25 to 40% of undergraduate students experienced test anxiety (Bodas, Ollendick, & Sovani, 2006) and 69% of them worrying about scholastic performance (Khan, Mahmood, Badshah, Ali, & Jamal, 2008). Medical students who experience test anxiety exhibited psychological symptoms include tension, lack of concentration, worries and stress, and physical symptoms were trembling and sweeting (Loh et al, 2008)
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