Effect of listening to Holy Quran recitation on test anxiety levels of university students

Test anxiety is common among university students. On the other hand, listening to the recitation of the Holy Quran may relieve symptoms of anxiety. Thus, this study was designed to examine the effects of the length of listening time to the recitation of the Holy Quran on test anxiety levels of students before starting the test.

This study was a quasi-experimental design which performed between two groups of psychology students of Semnan University (Iran). The data amassment instruments included demographic questionnaire and the Spielberger Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI). In this way, two groups of students participated in two separate tests. For the first group of students, the Quran was recited for 2.5 min before starting the test. For the second group of students, the Quran was recited for 5 min before starting the test. The test anxiety questionnaire was completed before and after listening to Quran by students.

The results showed that the average of test anxiety score were 45/6 and 48/3, for students who recited 2.5 and 5 min of the Qur'an before starting the test, respectively which this difference was not significant. While, test anxiety score was decreased to 40.7 and 46.8 after reciting of the Holy Quran between the two groups of students who recited 2.5 and 5 min of the Qur'an, respectively; which was statistically significant (P=0.003).

The results of this study showed that the Holy Quran recitation for 2.5 min before starting the test execution was more effective than a 5-min recipe to reduce test anxiety. Therefore, it is recommended that managers and policy makers of educational programs use from playing the sound of Quran in a short time at the beginning of each test.