Test anxiety and academic performance in female nursing students

Test anxiety is a response to a situation involving evaluation of a students’ performance. Test anxiety can be associated with poor academic performance. This study investigated the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance in female nursing students of Najafabad Islamic Azad University. In this descriptive-analytic study, 161 female nursing students in second to sixth semester were selected in 2011. Data were collected via two component questionnaires including demographic data (14 question) and Sarason’s test anxiety (37 question). Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) (α= 0.88), internal consistency coefficient 95% and criterion validity of 0.72; that were completed self- directed in Jun. Academic performance calculated by overall mean the scores in the past semesters. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software, using χ2, independent t test, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, stepwise multiple linear regression and forward multiple logistic regression analysis with significance level 0.05. In this study, the means students’ test anxiety and academic performance scores were in order 18.16 and 14.53. There was statistically significant reverse relationship between test anxiety and academic performance of nursing students(r = -0.213, p = 0.007). Employment and studying in higher semesters were two predictive variables that had more negative effects on academic performance. Multiple regression analysis tests showed that anxiety and other variables as predictive variable, had significant reverse relationship with academic performance (p=0.047). In order to results, helping students to manage their anxiety effectively is a challenging duty that requires team effort of educational systems during the educational process;especially in higher educational system.