Test-Anxiety and Self-Efficacy: A Study on the Students of Islamic Azad University, Branch of Southern Khorasan

Nowadays, self-directed approach to education is of great importance in the self-efficacy in educational settings. The findings of various research projects on the field reveal the vital role and importance of self-confidence in all areas of life. Accordingly, this project aims at studying the relationship between self-efficacy and test-anxiety in Iranian students of Islamic Azad University. This study is a descriptive and analytic study of correlation type. The selected 405 subjects who participated in the study were studying in Azad University, Southern Khorasan Province. They were selected through cluster random sampling. The data were collected through standardized questionnaires for self-efficacy and test-anxiety. Pearson correlation and t-test were employed to analyze the collected data using SPSS software. There is a relationship between self-efficacy and test-anxiety at the level of p<0.01. Also, the relationship between personal variables (age, sex, average, and. ..) with test-anxiety and self-efficacy was scrutinized. The results showed that there is a significant relation between student average and self-efficacy at the level of p<0.05 however, the sex variable was not influential in the results. There is a significant relationship between self-efficacy and test-anxiety and this in turn proved that self-efficacy is effective in improving the students’ mental health and their academic and vocational achievements. Accordingly, in order to improve self-efficacy, we need not only to include some instructions for self-efficacy in the curricula but also train teachers and students at any level of education.