Preclinical anxiety: the stress associated with aviva voceexamination

Abstract

It is shown that the state anxiety scores of 75 preclinical students taking a series of written and oral examinations, and measured just prior to taking a viva voce examination, were substantially raised. There was no correlation of anxiety with overall examination performance.

The Anxieties of Male and Female Medical Students on Commencing Clinical Studies: The Role of Gender

“…Many of their greatest anxieties are about relating to their teachers, the hospital consultants. Such anxieties can only contribute to the high levels of stress which medical students experience, described elsewhere (Allen, 1988(Allen, , 1994Arndt et al, 1986;Firth, 1986;FirthCozens, 1987;Kidson & Hornblow, 1982;Lloyd & Gartrell, 1981;Roos et al, 1977;Tooth et al, 1989).…”

“…Partly as a result of these pressures and the need to acquire a substantial body of knowledge and skills, medical students experience considerable anxiety at various stages in the curriculum (Arndt et al, 1986;Firth, 1986;Firth-Cozens, 1987;Kidson & Hornblow, 1982;Moss & McManus, 1992;Tooth et al, 1989). Such anxieties may result in, for example, reduced examination performance (Tooth et al, 1989), increased alcohol consumption (Firth, 1986) and attempted suicide (Warren & Wakeford, 1990).…”

Attitudes and reactions of Arab medical students to the dissecting room

“…Medical training in general is stressful and demanding (Firth, 1986;Tooth et al, 1989;Vitaliano et al, 1989), including a heavy workload (Hohaus and Berah, 1985;Wolf et al, 1988), both written and oral examinations (Arndt et al, 1986;Lovallo et al, 1986), communicating with patients and colleagues, and relationships with consultants (Firth, 1986).…”

Writing and marking examinations for paediatrics.

“…There has been a great deal of debate on its value as a measure of professional competence.16 Many candidates feel that their anxiety inhibits their performance in this confrontation although anxiety does not seem to affect results. 17 Some ways of improving traditional oral examination (viva): * Use a structured series of questions * Focus on communication and explanation skills * Use a wider range of subjects such as ethics, management and others which are difficult to test in MCQ format.…”