Anxiety Level among High School Students during the General Secondary Examination in Hebron District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the students test anxiety levels

of secondary school general exam during the academic year (2001/2002) in

Hebron directorate. It was also aimed at finding out the distributions of the

student test anxiety, in order to recognize the degree of the phenomenon to

help the concerned parties to give it more attention not only for the end of

the secondary stage , but also for the different school stages. Thus , the study

was designed to answer the following questions:

1. What is the real size of the phenomenon of test anxiety among the

students sitting for the general secondary school certificate exam ?

2. Are there any statistical differences in the test anxiety levels among the

students due to the following variables of : sex, study stream, type of

study, and the achievement level.

The population of the study consisted of (6798) male and female students,

5% of them have been chosen.

The sample consisted of (340) students, selected according to the variables

of the study. The test anxiety scale forms were distributed to them after the

end of the first day session. A total of (330) students were answered the

items of sarson scale for test anxiety. The researcher analysed the data by

using percentage t s test, and One Way ANOVA.

The results of the study revealed the following:

1. Statistically significant differences at the level of (? =0.05 )were found

between anxiety levels among the students. The proportion of those who

demonstrated high level of anxiety included (57.7 %), while medium anxiety

level included (34.9 %) of the students and low level of anxiety was (7.6 %)

of the students, which supported the first hypothesis of the study.

2. Statistically significant differences were found at the level of ( a

=0.05 ) between the means of the anxiety levels among male and female

students, in favour of the female students. This result supported the second

hypothesis of the study.

3. Statistically significant differences were found at the level of (a = 0.05

%) in the level of test anxiety, due to type of study in favour of private

education student. This result supported the third hypothesis of the study.

4. Statistically significant differences were found at the level of (a = 0.05

%) in the test anxiety among the students due to the academic stream, in

favour of the literary stream students.

5. Statistically significant differences were found at (a = 0.05 %) in the

levels of the test anxiety among students due to the achievement level in

favour of the low and middle achievers. This result supported the fifth

hypothesis.

Several recommendations were drawn from the study:

1. Students’ families should be aware of the negative effects of pressures

that affect their sons, in order to achieve high grades in the school

general exam.

2. Supporting a good guidance and counseling system in schools in order

to guide students on how to deal with test anxiety issues.

3. Giving students clear instructions about how to study and how to cope

with the situation of answering test questions.