Relationship Between Test Anxiety and Performance in Examination of Students in Basic Nursing Schools in Enugu Urban, Enugu State

ABSTRACT Test anxiety is conceived as the hyper-arousal condition that results in physiological, emotional and intellectual changes that prevent the effective use of the previously learned information while taking an examination. It is composed of “worry” which a cognitive anxiety related with performance and “emotionality” the arousal of autonomic nervous system in evaluative situations (Morris & Liebert 1970 in Ndirangu 2009). Examination performance is the grade point or scores obtained following examination. It is synonymous with academic performance. The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between test anxiety and examination performance of Basic Nursing Students in Enugu Urban. The correlation study design was used. The study was carried out among 140 PTS students of school of UNTH and School of Nursing ESUTH comprising 63 students from UNTH and 77 from ESUTH. Sarason’s test anxiety instrument was used to collect data on students test anxiety and published PTS results used for data on examination performance. The result showed that there is an inverse relationship between test anxiety and examination performance of the students r = -.20, N = 140 P = 02. It was also established that students with mild test anxiety had better examination performance than those with moderate test anxiety. The results also showed no significant difference in the test anxiety levels between Schools. The major educational implication is that high anxiety will lead to poor examination performance while mild and moderate anxiety levels will give good examination performance. It is recommended that a curriculum that is inclusive of strategies of coping with test anxiety be developed.