Reducing Test Anxiety Research Articles

The effect of dbt-informed mindfulness skills (what and how skills) and mindfulness-based stress reduction practices on test anxiety in college students: A mixed design study

Many studies have shown the anxiety reducing effects of extended mindfulness interventions; however, few have examined mindfulness interventions on test anxiety in a college student population. This study assesses the effects of Dialectical Behavior Therapy’s (DBT’s) mindfulness skills and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction practices over an 8-week period on college students. Participants (N = 43), included randomly assigned college students that were either included in a mindfulness group (an 8-week mindfulness training course), an online mindfulness group, or acted as a waitlist control group (no intervention received). Participants were assessed on text anxiety, general anxiety, and mindfulness at the beginning, mid-way point, and end of the study. Participants in the mindfulness conditions showed significant within-group reductions in test anxiety, general anxiety, and all sub-scales of mindfulness, except Observe, while participants in the Wait-List Control group primarily did not show changes. This specific mindfulness intervention that taught the “What” and “How” skills of DBT’s mindfulness module can help students reduce test anxiety and general anxiety as well as increase individual levels of mindfulness.

Reducing Test Anxiety Through Mind Relaxation in Undergraduate Nursing Students

BACKGROUND:
 Anxiety and stress are feelings often experienced during nursing course exams. According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, enhanced performance occurs at mid-levels of anxiety while low and high levels hinder optimum performance. 
 PURPOSE:
 The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of a Tai Chi (mind relaxation) intervention on test anxiety. 
 Approach:
 Test Anxiety was measured utilizing the Westside Test Anxiety Scale, Zero-to-Ten Self-Anxiety Scale, and pulse rates.
 Outcomes:
 Thirty-eight undergraduate nursing students enrolled in Health and Illness II during the fall and spring semesters participated in the study. An average of 15 students participated consistently in the Tai Chi intervention. Results demonstrated a significant difference in students’ anxiety scores before and after the Tai Chi intervention and with a post Tai Chi intervention anxiety scores reduction to a mid-level (M=4.73).
 CONCLUSION:
 This study supports Tai Chi as an effective intervention before examinations in reducing nursing students’ anxiety levels.

The Effect of Solution-Focused Brief Counseling on Reducing Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is a very common phenomena observed in K-12 level of education all over the world. This can take a more complex and stressful form in countires uses national exam in university entrance. Turkey is one of those countries. Since higher education is free for all of the citizen, students have found themselves confronting a very competitive testing-culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of solution-focused brief counseling approch on test anxiety of senior year high school students. An experimental study was conducted in an Anatolian High School in Bolu, Turkey in the academic year of 2015-2016. Sixteen students were participated in the study, eight of them were in the experimental group, other eight were in the control group. The ages of the students varied between 16 and 18 years; the average age of the experimental group was 17, while it was 16.87 in the control group. Six of the participants were male whereas ten were female. Because the data set was not normally distributed and number of participatns was less than 30, nonparametic tests were prefered for data analysis. Mann Whitney-U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests, which are nonparametric techniques, were utilized in data processing. The resuls revaled that the four-session individual psychological counseling based on solution-focused brief approach was effective in mitigating students' test anxiety. These findings were found to be consistent with the related literature.Keywords: Solution-Focused Brief approach, psychological counseling, test anxiety, adolescent, high school student, university entrance exam.

Role of Academic Self-efficacy and Social Support on Nursing Students' Test Anxiety

Associations between test anxiety, academic self-efficacy (ASE), and social support through social media have not been fully explored. The purposes were to explore associations between test anxiety, ASE, and social support from social media and to examine differences in test anxiety by students' year of studies and cultural background. This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive design. The sample comprised first- and fourth-year nursing students (n = 240) attending a baccalaureate nursing program in Israel. Higher ASE and support through social media were related to lower test anxiety. Fourth-year students and Jewish students had higher ASE than first-year and Arab students, who received more support on social media than Jewish students. Developing learning strategies designed to increase students' ASE and reduce test anxiety is warranted. Social media as an educational tool can be adopted for this purpose.

Positive Prompts: A Quick Exercise to Reduce Test Anxiety.

Positive Prompts: A Quick Exercise to Reduce Test Anxiety.

Reducing Test Anxiety in School Settings: A Controlled Pilot Study Examining a Group Format Delivery of the Attention Training Technique Among Adolescent Students

Researchers have called for the examination of test anxiety interventions that extend beyond the delivery of individual services by a trained professional. Following from conceptual models and research findings underscoring the importance of metacognitive beliefs to test anxiety, a controlled pilot study examined whether a group format delivery of the attention training technique (ATT) component of metacognitive therapy reduces test anxiety among eighth-grade students. Students completed baseline study measures and were allocated based upon class period to five sessions of ATT (n = 39) or a music listening control (n = 34) delivered within a group format during a school week. Students completed postintervention study measures on the final day of the intervention and completed follow-up study measures approximately 3 weeks following the intervention. As predicted, students receiving ATT reported less postintervention test anxiety than the control when they held stronger baseline metacognitive beliefs about worry. The patterns of findings held at the follow-up and when specifically examining the cognitive (i.e., worry) dimension of test anxiety. Study results suggest that ATT may be a viable test anxiety intervention for students holding heightened metacognitive beliefs about worry. Future directions are discussed.

Active Learning: A New Assessment Model that Boost Confidence and Learning While Reducing Test Anxiety

Active Learning: A New Assessment Model that Boost Confidence and Learning While Reducing Test Anxiety

The impact of peer-to-peer coaching on self-esteem, test anxiety and perceived stress in adolescents

Schools are increasingly using peer support programmes to support students. This study will explore the effectiveness of peer-to-peer coaching on increasing self-esteem and reducing test anxiety and perceived stress in sixth form students. Fifty-five participants took part in the study. IGROW, a variation of the GROW coaching model, was used to structure a coaching intervention for 27 students, with 28 students receiving no coaching intervention. There was a significant improvement in self-esteem post-intervention for males regardless of group. The coaching group significantly reduced in test anxiety. There was no significant impact of coaching on perceived stress. Further research may determine whether peer coaching may be a beneficial low-cost method to support students during stressful periods.

Optimierung der ZD-Prüfungsvorbereitung in Bezug auf die Aufgabenformen

Optimizing Certificate German (ZD) Test Preparation with Regard to Task Form Placement and progress tests are used to provide optimum instruction. Experience with test task forms at various times in various situations increase task related skills and reduce test anxiety – closed tasks exercising recognition; open tasks production. Very important are skills in comprehending test task instructions and carrying them out. As an alternative to the more stressful schoolroom work, E-tests and CD-ROM work facilitate and stimulate preparation so long as the desired goals are kept in the forefront.

Do people with Alzheimer's disease improve with repeated testing? Unpacking the role of content and context in retest effects.

retest effects may be attributed to 'repeated content' in neuropsychological tests such as words in word list-learning tests, or the 'testing context' which involves procedural memory and reduced test anxiety following repeated administration. Alzheimer's Disease (AD) severely impairs episodic memory, so longitudinal cognitive testing among people with dementia may reveal the relative contributions of content versus context to retest effects in neuropsychological testing. we used data from the Critical Path Institute's repository of placebo arm data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of dementia conducted by participating pharmaceutical companies (N = 990 people, 4,170 study visits, up to 2.4 years of follow-up). To estimate retest effects on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), we used linear regressions with random effects for people and time, adjusting for age, sex and race, and longitudinal quantile regressions. average MMSE score (16.6 points, SD = 5.5, range 1, 27) declined by 2.0 points/year (95% confidence interval, CI: -2.3, -1.8). Mean retest effect was 0.6 points (95% CI: 0.4, 0.8) at second assessment (average 4 months after baseline). Retest effects were similar among participants with and without any recall on the short-delay word recall subscale score at baseline, and at the 30th, 50th and 70th percentiles of the MMSE distribution, suggesting similar retest effects across the spectrum from mild to severe cases of dementia. retest effects are apparent in people with dementia despite reduced episodic memory, suggesting a prominent role of the testing context in RCTs and cohort studies.

A Quantitative Framework for the Analysis of Two-Stage Exams

Two-stage exams have gained traction in education as a means of creating collaborative active-learning experiences in the classroom in a manner that advances learning, positively increases student engagement, and reduces test anxiety. Published analyses have focused almost exclusively on the increase in student scores from the first individual stage to the second collaboration stage and have shown clear positive effects on gains in student scores. Missing from these analyses is a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of individual preparation, the characteristics of questions, and small group composition on the outcomes two-stage exams. I developed a simple quantitative framework that provides a flexible approach for estimating and evaluating the effects of individuals, questions, and groups on student performance. Additionally, the framework yields statistics appropriate for making inferences about productive collaboration, consensus-building, and counter-productive interaction that happens within small groups. Analyses of 12 exams across two courses and 2 years using the quantitative framework revealed considerable variation for all three of these effects within and among exams. Overall, the results highlight the value of quantitative estimation of two-stage exams for gaining perspective on the effects of individuals, questions, and groups on student performance, and facilitates data-driven revision of assessments, curricula, and teaching strategies towards achieving gains in students' collaborative skills.

The effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the test anxiety of Students at the University of Garmian

This study aimed to investigate the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on reducing of test anxiety in students. The research method was Quasi experimental with pretest-posttest and control groups. The statistical population consisted of all students at the University of Garmian in the 2017-2018 academic years. Sample was selected among them by using the result of Spielberger's Test Anxiety, 30 students who had high scores on test anxiety (one standard deviation above the mean group), were selected and randomly assigned in two experimental and control group. Experimental groups, received 8 sessions of mindfulness-based stress reduction program. For collecting data Spielberger's Test Anxiety was used. The data were analyzed by ANCOVA statistical method. The results showed that there are significant differences between the experimental and control groups. Mindfulness-based stress reduction was influential in reducing test anxiety in students. There was also significant difference between the two groups considering the gender, that in girls, mindfulness-based stress reduction program in comparison with the boys was more effective in reducing test anxiety of students. Therefore, the research hypothesis was approved. So we can conclude that training of mindfulness-based stress reduction is effective in reducing test anxiety especially in girls.

Efektivitas Intervensi Kelompok untuk Meningkatkan Self-Esteem pada Mahasiswa dengan Test Anxiety

Test is defined as an indicator of success for college students in education. As a result, college students often feel anxious when faced with test and this is called test anxiety. Test anxiety will negatively affect performance’s college students and inhibit student to complete their academic demands. Self-esteem becomes the main factor of college students experiencing test anxiety. The purpose of this study is explain the effectiveness of group intervention in improving self-esteem of college students who experience test anxiety. Intervention is conducted over 4 sessions (90 - 135 minutes each session) by including some strategies such as cognitive restructuring, study skills & habits, self-care, timing, mindfulness, breathing and relaxation techniques, self-control desensitization , and exercises manage distractions. This research method used one group before after design. The number of participants who followed the study were 5 college students. Based on the comparison of pre-test and post-test, the results were as following: (a) the anxiety test score of five participants decreased after therapy; (b) the self-esteem score of three participants increased after therapy. The five participants also showed more adaptable beliefs, decreased physiological reactions, and improved behavior that may degrade performance when dealing with test situations. In addition, all participants began to learn to see the positive qualities within themselves to improve their self-esteem. The results show that group intervention is effective in reducing test anxiety and increasing self-esteemKeywords: Group intervention, self-esteem, test anxiety

The Effects of Formative and Dynamic Assessments of Reading Comprehensions on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Test Anxiety

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of formative and dynamic assessments of reading comprehension on intermediate EFL learners’ test anxiety. To conduct the study, 50 out of 66 intermediate Iranian EFL learners, males (N= 22) and females (N=28) with age range of 14 to 19 were selected from a private institute based on their performance on the Oxford Placement Test (syndicate, 2001). They were randomly classified into formative and dynamic assessment groups of intermediate EFL learners which were 25 learners in each group. For the formative group the researchers administered reading comprehension test after teaching each reading task. The researcher provides feedback for each student based on their performance on the test separately. For dynamic group the researcher used sandwich model of dynamic assessment i.e. after each reading task the researcher administered reading comprehension test as a pre-test then after collecting pre-test information, the researcher provided mediation and necessary information for answering test question generally to students. The data were collected through the pre-test and the post-test. For pre-test and post-test the researcher used test anxiety questionnaire (Sarason, 1984). The data were analyzed using SPSS software. The result of this study showed that formative assessment of reading comprehension have statistically significant effect on intermediate EFL learners’ test anxiety reduction and dynamic assessment of reading comprehension have statistically significant effect on intermediate EFL learners’ test anxiety reduction. Also dynamic assessment of reading comprehension had more effect on intermediate EFL learners’ test anxiety reduction.

Students generating questions as a way of learning

Student question generation is a constructive strategy that enriches learning, yet is hardly practiced in higher education. The study described here presents a potential model for integrating student question generation into an education setting. In all, 133 students generated questions in groups, answered and assessed the questions of their peers. Comparison of the examination grades before and after question generation found that the activity did not result in a statistically significant improvement in achievements. However, a comparison of only the achievements in answering the higher-order thinking questions revealed an improvement in the students’ ability to cope with these types of question. Moreover, the students reported advantages, such as reduction of test anxiety, productive group learning and the creation of a question bank resulting from the activity, which helped the students study for the examination. The educational implications of the findings are discussed.

The effect of positive psychotherapy in test anxiety among Zahedan students with hemophilia.

Hemophilia is a chronic disease which due to several reasons, including frequent absences from school and reduced motivation, leads to the incident of test anxiety among patients. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy in test anxiety among students with hemophilia. The current study followed a pretest, posttest, and two-month followup quasi-experimental design with an experimental group and a control group. This study had a statistical population including all senior elementary and junior high school students with hemophilia who had medical records in Zahedan Hemophilia Society. After screening them, 60 students were selected and randomly assigned to two 30-person groups of experimental and control. Since some patients refused to continue taking part in this study, the sample decreased to 57 people. Measurement tool used in this study was Sarason Test Anxiety Scale. Positive psychotherapy was held in 8 sessions (two 120-minute sessions per week) and a follow-up was conducted two months after completing the psychotherapy. Data were analyzed using a repeated measure analysis of variance. Results showed that positive psychotherapy significantly reduced test anxiety among the students with hemophilia. Moreover, the stability of the effects of this therapy in the follow-up was confirmed. The obtained results indicated that policymakers should pay a lot of attention to this new positive psychological training and its effects on reducing test anxiety.

Does A Self‐Paced, Fixed‐Time, Laboratory Examination Improve Anxiety and Performance among Undergraduate Students?

The use of the traditional laboratory examination structure for the evaluation of student knowledge has a long history of success in anatomical education. Various professional and graduate level programs have recently experimented with self‐paced (SP) versus belled‐paced (BP) laboratory examination structures, revealing that students typically prefer SP as this reduces test anxiety while producing comparable performance (knowledge) outcomes. Such success among more senior level students in completing the SP structure may depend on one's ability to self‐monitor and self‐regulate progression through the examination in order to ensure sufficient timing for all stations. It is currently unknown if an SP examination structure would also benefit more junior undergraduate students. Using a randomized cross‐over design this research evaluated the impact of an SP vs. BP laboratory examination structure on student anxiety and student performance. Undergraduate students (n=20) in an advanced dissection course completed both a midterm (31 specimen stations with A/B split questions arranged as a “staircase” with 4 equally spaced rest stations) and a final laboratory examination (details tbd). For the midterm students were randomly assigned to one of two cohorts; the SP cohort (n=10) or the BP cohort (n=10). Both cohorts received 35 total minutes. Test anxiety was measured pre‐ and post‐examination using a modified State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (out of 60). Differences in test performance and change in anxiety level pre‐ to post‐ examination were compared using unpaired t‐tests. Student perceptions of the examination structure were collected via open‐ended feedback and qualitatively assessed. From the midterm results, student performance was similar between examination structures (SP: 84.9 ± 10.2%, BP: 88.6 ± 6.4%, p > 0.05). Interesting trends have begun to emerge as the SP cohort experienced both greater pre‐exam anxiety and reduced post‐exam anxiety as compared to the BP cohort, resulting in near significant pre‐ to post‐ change scores (SP: +5.4 ± 9.5, BP: −3.3 ± 10.8, p = 0.071). Open‐ended feedback revealed that students consistently reported the SP structure to be “stressful” due to both i) aspects of having to self‐monitor timing throughout the examination and ii) aspects of students being “back‐logged” against each other. Further results collected from the final examination, when the SP and BP cohorts cross‐over, will provide additional statistical power and qualitative comparisons of the SP and BP structures. This preliminary pilot study work reveals that undergraduate students completing a SP laboratory examination, with its current design, may not experience the reduced student‐anxiety levels that professional students experience. In fact, the BP examination structure may be ideal for more junior learners as it provides explicit direction and guidance.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Agentic Engagement and Test Anxiety: The Mediatory Role of the Basic Psychological Needs

Despite the role of agency in schools, few researchers have addressed the issue. The present study aims to analyze the relationship between agentic engagement, basic psychological needs, and test anxiety by using structural equation modeling. For this purpose, 289 female students in math-physics and basic sciences were selected as the samples by using multistage cluster sampling. Reeve and Tseng’s aspects of students’ engagement during learning activity, La Guardia’s et al. basic psychological needs, and Ahvaz test anxiety scale were used as data collection tools. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that agentic engagement positively influenced the basic psychological needs such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness while it could negatively affect test anxiety with the mediatory role of basic psychological needs. In conclusion, agentic engagement can be regarded as a critical variable in affecting the basic psychological needs and reducing test anxiety.

Board Game in Physics Classes\u2014a Proposal for a New Method of Student Assessment

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of assessing students’ achievements in a physics course in the form of a group board game. Research was conducted in two groups of 131 high school students in Poland. In each school, the research sample was divided into experimental and control groups. Each group was taught by the same teacher and participated in the same courses and tests before the game. Just after finishing the course on waves and vibrations (school 1) and optics (school 2), experimental groups took part in a group board game to assess their knowledge. One week after the game, the experimental and control groups (not involved in the game) took part in the post-tests. Students from the experimental groups performed better in the game than in the tests given before the game. As well their results in the post-tests were significantly higher statistically than students from the control groups. Simultaneously, student’s opinions in the experimental groups about the board game as an assessment method were collected in an open-descriptive form and in a short questionnaire, and analyzed. Results showed that students experienced a positive attitude toward the assessment method, a reduction of test anxiety and an increase in their motivation for learning.

Effects of an Inquiry-Based Short Intervention on State Test Anxiety in Comparison to Alternative Coping Strategies.

Background and Objectives: Test anxiety can have undesirable consequences for learning and academic achievement. The control-value theory of achievement emotions assumes that test anxiety is experienced if a student appraises an achievement situation as important (value appraisal), but feels that the situation and its outcome are not fully under his or her control (control appraisal). Accordingly, modification of cognitive appraisals is assumed to reduce test anxiety. One method aiming at the modification of appraisals is inquiry-based stress reduction. In the present study (N = 162), we assessed the effects of an inquiry-based short intervention on test anxiety.Design: Short-term longitudinal, randomized control trial.Methods: Focusing on an individual worry thought, 53 university students received an inquiry-based short intervention. Control participants reflected on their worry thought (n = 55) or were distracted (n = 52). Thought related test anxiety was assessed before, immediately after, and 2 days after the experimental treatment.Results: After the intervention as well as 2 days later, individuals who had received the inquiry-based intervention demonstrated significantly lower test anxiety than participants from the pooled control groups. Further analyses showed that the inquiry-based short intervention was more effective than reflecting on a worry thought but had no advantage over distraction.Conclusions: Our findings provide first experimental evidence for the effectiveness of an inquiry-based short intervention in reducing students’ test anxiety.