Chapter 01

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study

The most powerful tool for decision making in our rivalry society is to have test and examination
at all levels of education along with the people of all age groups being examined with respect to
their expertise, potential and accomplishments. The pressure of tests and examination stops the
students from reaching their academic achievements. Researchers said that students are
continuously receiving tests as an origin of increasing in anxiety and a situation that consumes a
lot of unpredictability in order to show their true academic achievements (Zollar & Ben-chain,
1990; Spiel berger, 1985)..These kind of feelings in students doesn’t allow them to show their
abilities during tests and the results showing high level of test anxiety which effects student’s
academic potential directly (Hill & Wig field, 1984) .

According to the (Oludipe, 2009) ‘Test anxiety is one of the main reason of the students
low academic abilities and potentials and can be seen to stop them taking benefits from the
institution (Schonwetler, 1995). Some studies show that there is significantly inverse relationship
between the academic achievement of the students and their test anxiety from a very long period.

Gaudry and Spielberger (1971) discovered that weak or modest level of performance of
students is due to the high level of anxiety is considered to be the one of the major reasons at
university level. Nicholson (2009) also conducted a study to analysis the effects of test anxiety
on student’s academic achievement of college level students and he also concluded that the test
anxiety and the academic performance are correlated to each other. Another study conducted by
Khalid and Hasan (2009) to investigate the correlation between test anxiety and academic
achievement by selecting 187 purposively samples of undergraduates students and they
discovered that students having low academic performances has high level of anxiety scores and
vice versa. Chapell, Blanding, Takahashi, Silverstein, Newman, Gubi, and McCann (2005) also
arranged a study of research to explore the relationship between test anxiety and academic
achievements. They collected a large number of samples from graduates and undergraduates
students and concluded that there is a significantly negative relationship between test anxiety and
academic performance. Hancock (2001) also searched on the effects of students test anxiety and
the teachers evaluation practices on students achievement and motivation at the secondary level.
He concluded significantly positive results that students were having poor achievement who
were with high level of anxiety and were also less motivated towards learning.

Cassady and Johnson (2002) also conducted a study named “to explore the effects of
cognitive test anxiety on student’s academic performance and concluded that cognitive test
anxiety emphasis on a significantly stable but negative impact on academic performance
evaluation. Albero, Brown, Eliason & Wind (1997), they also concluded on the basis of their
study that students having anxiety having low academic performance. Oludipe (2009) also
conducted a study to investigate how the performance level in the science subject is affected by
the students having low test anxiety. He concluded that low test fidget students performed better
than the high level of fidget students in the tasks of physics both in numerical and non-
numerical.

Cassady and Johnson (2002) also studied that on the basis of student’s gender that both
males and females feel the equal level of test anxiety but females are more emotional than males.
Zeidner (1990), he found that the difference in the scores of test anxiety of both males and
females is due to the difference in educational ability. So it is clear from the above discussion of
different researchers and on the basis of their concluded results that the test anxiety affects not
only the academic performance but also the other variables like learning, motivation, ability to
learn from classroom instructions and gender. The heterogeneity in the effects of the test anxiety
results the researchers to think that the test anxiety is of two-dimensional construct (Berk &
Nanda, 2006; Chapell et al., 2005; Cassady & Johnson, 2002; Diaz, 2001) with affective and
cognitive components.

Hanckock, 2001; Pintrich & Schunk, 1996; Williams, 1994.refers the affective
dimensions to the physical or the behavioral responses to that particular situation for example
fear, nervousness and feeling physically discomfort. (Cassady & Johnson, 2002) The
physiological reactions they experienced during the evaluation process is due to the high level of
emotionality. (Humbree, 1988; Morris, Davis, & Hutchings, 1981; Depreeuw, 1984) the
cognitive dimension refers about the performance for example getting worried about the testing
process or poor performance expectations. The discussion above has urged the researchers to
investigate test anxiety as an important factor in student’s achievement among Pakistani students
in District Peshawar, KP.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Test anxiety is a common problem all over the world. It badly affects the student’s academic
achievement. It can be a major factor that impacts student’s academic performance at secondary
level. It becomes one of the broadest area of research nowadays because of the students’
experience at secondary levels of test anxiety during exams even though they studied well during
the class. In this regard it is necessary to examine the impact of test anxiety of student’s
academic achievement at secondary school level.

1.3 Research Objectives

Following will be the objectives of the study.

1-To determine the impact of test anxiety on the student’s academic achievement at secondary
school level.

2-To find out the impact of cognitive factor(worry) on the student’s academic achievement at
secondary level.

3- To find out the impact of effective factor(emotional) on the student’s academic achievement at
secondary level.

1.4 Research Hypotheses

Following will be the hypotheses of this study;

H01: There will be no significant impact of of test anxiety on the student’s academic achievement
at secondary school level.

2-There will be no significant impact of cognitive factor (worry) on the student’s academic
achievement at secondary level.

3- There will be no significant impact of effective factor (emotional) on the student’s academic
achievement at secondary level.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study will be delimited to government girls secondary school students in district Peshawar
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This will be also delimited to science subjects only.

Chapter 02
LITERATURE REVIEW
Rana and Mahmood (2010) conducted a study to explore the relationship between test
anxiety and academic achievement of students at the post graduate level. A sample of 414
students was randomly selected from seven different science departments in a public sector
university in Lahore, Pakistan. Data were collected by using the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI)
developed by Spielberger. Pearson correlation, multivariate statistics and regression analyses
were run for data analysis. It was found that a significant negative relationship exists between
test anxiety scores and students’ achievement scores. Results showed that a cognitive factor
(worry) contributes more in test anxiety than affective factors (emotional).

Although, there are very limited researches available on test anxiety among secondary
school students specifically in District Peshawar and in general in Pakistan. This area of research
has a greater concern to be intensely studied to identify the locus of the impact of test anxiety on
academic achievement among undergraduate students.

2.1: Conceptual Framework

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Test Anxiety

 Cognitive factor
 Effective factor Academic Achievement
 Chapter 03
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This section will describe population, sample, research instrument and procedure of the data
collection.

3.1 Research Design

This study being a descriptive in nature will utilize survey technique with the aim to assess the
impact of test anxiety on students’ academic achievement based on grades among secondary
school students of District Peshawar.

3.2 Population

Population of this study consists of all female 65 government girls secondary schools of district
Peshawar. The total number of female students in these 65 schools are 6, 960. (source; EMIS)

3.3 Sample

Female Students of class 10th constitutes the study sample. Among these, 364 government girls
secondary school students were selected as sample size for this study. The sample size is
determined through Krejcie & Morgan, 1970 table. After selection of sample size simple random
sampling technique will be used to collect data from the respondents.

3.4 Research Instrument

There are several instruments developed by various authors for measuring test anxiety but they
all use text anxiety as unitary construct. Thus they insist on finding a unitary number
representing text anxiety level of students. As this study is based on assumption that test anxiety
is at least bi-dimensional construct comprising of emotionality and worry scale. Thus, researcher
will use Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) to capture the bi-dimensionality of the selected construct
originally developed by Spielberger;1980 (Appendix A).
3.5 Procedure of Data Collection

The data will be collected personally by the researcher. The consent of the participants, privacy
of information collected and other ethical sureties will be provided to the participants.

3.6 Data Analysis techniques

Analysis of data will be done using SPSS version 23. Regression analysis will be used to find the
impact of Test anxiety on academic achievement of students at secondary school level.

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Appendix

Survey Questionnaire