Associations between Students’ Test Preparation Strategies and Test Anxiety: Gender, Age, and Parents’ Level of Education as Control Variables

Abstract

Although students’ test preparation tendencies are related to their test-taking confidence, empirical evidence on how students’ test preparation strategies relate to their test anxiety is still lacking. Framed within the skills deficit model, we examined the associations between students’ test preparation strategies (cognitive, metacognitive, and social preparation strategies) and their test anxiety (worry, cognitive, tension, and physiological test anxiety). Students’ gender, age, and parents’ level of education served as control variables. Participants were 248 students in two randomly selected secondary schools in Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria. Survey questionnaires were used for data collection. Major findings revealed that cognitive and metacognitive test preparation strategies significantly predicted worry and physiological indicators components of test anxiety, respectively. When the sociodemographic variables were controlled, the ΔR2 was significant only in the worry and physiological subscale. We concluded that test preparation strategies could be more associated with the worry subscale than the affective-physiological subscale. Furthermore, test preparation strategies involving monitoring and regulation could be associated to physiological indicators of test anxiety.

Examining the Relationship between Substance Use and Test Anxiety among Students in a Public University in Nigeria

“…Thus, individuals who use psychoactive substances are likely less prepared for the assessment of learning outcomes than their peers who do not. Nwosu et al (2022) observed that students who are more confident in their test-taking abilities due to their preparedness experience less test anxiety. Misuse of stimulants by college students has also been associated with increased deficits in executive functions (Edinoff et al, 2022) suggesting they may have trouble with cognitive flexibility and self-monitoring, planning and following it through to goal attainment, exhibiting inhibition and updating of working memory, and managing emotions, all of which are vital for academic success (Austin et al, 2020).…”