Influence Of Gender And Mode Of Study On Examination Anxiety Among Undergraduates

Influence Of Gender And Mode Of Study On Examination Anxiety Among Undergraduates

Abstract

This study delved the influence of gender and mode of study on examination anxiety among undergraduates. 77 regular scholars( 37 males and 40 ladies) and 53 mature scholars( 28 males and 25 ladies) were tried . The sample were aimlessly named from the population of both mature and regular scholars of Enugu State University of Science and Technology. The age range of the mature scholars were between 35 – 54 times with a mean age of 47 times and standard divagation of 6 times, while that of the regular scholars is between 19 – 26 times with a mean age of 22 times, and standard divagation of 4 times. 15 item questionnaire with likert 5 response format was used 2 x 2 factorial design was espoused while two way ANOVA statistics was used for data analysis. Findings revealed that a significant influence of gender on examination anxiety live among undergraduates F,( 1, 126) = 11.8 p<.01. And a significant influence of mode of study on examination anxiety live also among undergraduates F,( 1, 126) = 48.9 p<.01. There was a significant commerce influence of gender and mode of study on examination anxiety among undergraduates f( 1, 126) = 2565.5 p<.01. Findings of the study were bandied, and recommendations were also made.

Chapter One

Preface

Background of the study

Low performance of scholars in examinations especially external test is no longer news in Nigeria. Over the times, stakeholders in this field having been working lifelessly to remedy the unattractive marvels unfortunately, their trouble is yet to yield any significant impact. A situation that’s giving all the categories of Nigerian Government insomniac night.

colorful factors have been linked as interference to promoting academic excellence in Nigeria, among which are, poor backing of education, lack of structure in the academy, lack of man- power etc. On the part of the scholars, lack of interest, love for plutocrat or what’s known as get rich quick pattern were linked. Unfortunately, none of them was suitable to see test anxiety. At times, scholars will read veritably well yet he or she’ll perform inadequately in test simply because of pressure. test itself causes anxiety to some scholars( Nelson, 2001). studies have shown that test anxiety makes a pupil to forget all that he or she studied( Nelson 2002).

Clear understanding of features of anxiety is enough evidence to it’s effect on remembering. Anxiety causes muscle pressure which makes the brain t be relaxed thereby causing obliviousness.

Anxiety is complex and mysterious. The more you learn about it, the further thwarting it seems. It’s a negative mood state that’s characterized by fleshly symptoms of physical pressure and apprehension about the future.( American Psychological Association 1994; Durand & Barlow 2002). It can also be seen as a private sense of apprehension, a set of behaviours( similar as looking upset, anxious or wriggling) or a physiological response forming in the brain and reflecting on elevated heart rate and muscle pressure.

During anxiety responses or response, the heart, lungs, and other corridor of the body work briskly. The brain also releases the emergence( stress) hormone adrenaline and cortisol( Obidigbo, 2008) people who witness this complaint generally report being unhappy and behavious is maladaptive.

In academy, some scholars witness some kind of anxiety complaint within their stay in academy,( Nelson, 2002) and the most common is examination anxiety. Examination anxiety may manifest among scholars through admission of wrong or series of unwarranted fear, rapid-fire breathing, through scrupulous cautions.( Nelson 2002).

In education, there’s a common measuring scale the system, or the process of assessing the understanding and proficiency of a pupil in what he or she learns within a given time interval. The evaluation may be in two forms viz constructive or surmative education. The constructive process is done during the instruction, while the surmative is done at the end of the course of the instruction. thus, a methodical procedure for measuring a sample of behavious is examination.

In academy terrain, one of the most arousing stimulants examination, and all signs of unease are observed among some of our scholars, but these signs seems to vanish as soon as examinations are over.

This is substantially seen when the scholars didn’t prepare veritably well for the examination, or when they’re given examination by surprise. They find it veritably delicate to concentrate on their work.

Some will start sweating on their triumphs, as well as other corridor of their body. A close watch on some scholars, one may see them dropping effects like books, autocrats and bags on the ground, which some will hit their legs on tables, chairpersons etc. All these are believed to be instantiations of examination anxiety( Wind, 2000). This has also Lead to the reduction in our standard of education, for case, some of the secondary academy scholars, who are too anxious about examination will fail an test and to avoid this frustration, which will affect the pupil image or regulation, they will resort to examination malpractice( infidelity) in order to gauge through. Not because they’re unintelligent, or that they didn’t prepare well for the test, but because they’re hysterical to fail the test.

The incarnation of examination anxiety differs, depending on the existent, scholars and the subjects, some scholars may enjoy computations and dislike or avoid any subject that involves a lot of alphabet or jotting, while others may enjoy subjects with a lot of alphabet and jotting, and detest computations.

utmost times, pressure from parents, preceptors and terrain contribute to this problem of examination anxiety. Parents and preceptors mount so important pressure on these scholars to insure that they perform better in their examination, but at a point, these scholars get too anxious about the test and how they will perform, and the consequences of failing an examination. The attendant effect being that theover-anxious pupil will now perform veritably inadequately in the examination. The terrain perhaps too stressful for these scholars to learn effectively and this will make them not to prepare well for the examination. The result of being hysterical of an exanimation, results in failure or poor academic performance which brings united difficulty and frustration to the scholars. This could be in form of having one’s stopgap dashed. For illustration, when we consider the problem involved in getting ourselves registered for an examination also it becomes frustrating when success is fugitive. Also, the rigour involved when preparing for an examination becomes painful when the outgrowth isn’t positive.

Obviously, negative outgrowth of test may be attributed to one of the factors that promote examination anxiety. When a pupil who anticipated to pass an test ultimately failed, similar pupil may come tensed about test. Above all, one may say that schoolteacher pupil relationship have a part to play on pressure that goes with test anxiety.

Obviously, the relationship between the preceptors and progressed scholars and that of speakers and regular scholars isn’t the same.

thus, to determine whether this difference in relationship has a race to play in examination anxiety, the present study is interested in comparing the position of examination anxiety among the two groups.

Grounded on the discussion over, one may ask whether personality or other variables of an existent could affect or determine the position of the existent’s examination anxiety. Hence, the present study is designed to gives answer to the question by looking at the effect of gender and mode of study an examination.

Statement Of The Problem

Over the times, experimenters have reported low performance of scholars in academic work. No wonder there’s high decline of education in our society moment. still, colorful factors similar as, poor reading terrain, lack of reading accoutrements and so on have been linked as contributors to poor academic performance in our seminaries. Unexpectedly, some seminaries with these installations still have high situations of poor performance in examinations especially external examinations like National Examination and West Africa Examination.

In addition, studies have linked factors similar as examination anxiety as a bane for scholars ’ low academic performance.( Nelson 2002). With reference to the discussion over, the present study supposed it necessary to look at part of factors similar as gender and mode of study in determining Examination anxiety among Adolescents. thus, the following problems will be addressed in this study.

Will manly and womanish undergraduates differ significantly on incarnation of examination anxiety.

Will regular and mature undergraduates differ significantly on incarnation of examination anxiety.

Functional Description Of Terms

Gender Being manly or womanish

Examination anxiety This will be determined grounded on the instrument used to measure the construct in this study.

Mode of study In this study, this simply means regular/ full time scholars and progressed part time scholars.