Coping with examination nerves : the degree of anxiety experienced by young students

Abstract

The main focus of this study is to explore the impact of examination anxiety on self concept and self-esteem and the extent of negative affect described by 8 students preparing for their Matsecs. A phenomenological approach was adopted in order to capture, as far as possible, the extent of the participants' experiences. Besides defining the construct of test anxiety, other associated factors were also examined. These included self-efficacy and learned helplessness, coping strategies and responses, test anxiety and learning disabilities. It was found that the participants experienced a relatively substantial amount of examination anxiety, there was a marked change in self-concept and self-esteem for most of the participants during the examination period i.e. while studying, during and right after the examination and that the participants were likely to ruminate during this time, whereas, the majority of the participants seemed to curb negative thoughts only after the examinations, i.e. when the results were out.