THE CORRELATION OF

Mapúa University COLLEGE STUDENT’S

ANXIETY AND THEIR ACADEMIC

PERFORMANCE S.Y. 2019-2020

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Research Journal
The researchers from Mapua University conducted a study about college
student’s anxiety and their academic performance. Students with anxiety tend to display
a passive attitude in their academic performance such as the lack of interest in their
studies, poor grades in quizzes, examination periods, and or assignments. More
physical signs include panicking, going black during a test, being nervous, racing
heartbeat, and many more (Ruffins, 2007). These signs are often shrugged off and are
called a sign of being lazy. However, the researchers want to get the students’ insight to
find out how serious these attacks really are.

To experience anxiety whilst studying is said to be a major factor of academic

performance (McCraty, 2007) as this can possibly lead to damaging results. According
to McGraw-Hill Education, the said learning science company revealed that test anxiety
does have a negative impact on student performance (2016), and since there were no
studies found regarding a conducted study in the Philippine setting, the researchers
decided to manage a similar research.

Generally, the research aims to determine the correlation of Mapua University

College Student’s Anxiety and their Academic Performance. Specifically, the study aims
to determine the following research questions:

1. What is the level of anxiety of Mapua College Students?

2. What is the relationship of anxiety and the GWA of College Students of Mapua
University?

This research aims to know if there is a correlation between an individual’s

severity of anxiety and their academic performance. The individuals chosen by the
researchers to participate in this particular study are 1 st year college students of Mapua
University in the school year of 2019 to 2020. In order to assess and use the emotion
anxiety as a quantifiable variable the research will use a standardized test used by
psychologist and therapists for measuring the severity of anxiety known as the Clinically
Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale or CUXOS (Zimmerman, Chelminski, Young &
Dalrymple, 2010). For the academic performance variable, the researchers will acquire
final grades only from specific subjects that the researchers consider to best show
academic performance. The estimated amount of respondents is at least 50 persons
with complete data and CUXOS score. The research will be conducted within the span
of a term in a semester. If the respondent fails to complete either of the requirements
the data will be unusable.

This study applied a quantitative research design using a correlational

approach. . The researchers aim to see whether the two said variables are directly or
indirectly proportional to one another. The study was conducted at Mapua University,
Intramuros Campus and via the use of the internet. It is more convenient to gather and
acquire participants in this location.

The first choice of sampling was cluster and systematic sampling. Wrote each
strand in College Level available at Mapua University and listed the sections in each
strand. After listing, every third section that would they will be chosen for our study. It
was limited to 50 Mapua University students in all engineering courses.

This study conducts through an online-survey questionnaire, standardized

instrument checklist was used to conduct their survey. The contents of the survey form
is a list of subjects that are difficult enough for the students to handle and was to be
filled up which is applicable to them depending on their courses. The CUXOS (Clinically
Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale) is a general measure of mental and psychic rather than
a disorder specific scale.

The researchers prepared the instruments a week before the said schedule of
conducting the surveys itself. The researchers started sharing the online-survey
questionnaire to 50 college students and immediately encountered a problem after the
research was conducted. Unfortunately, some of the participants were not able to
answer because of lack in internet connection, the researchers decided to do quota
sampling. Online-surveys were handed out to those college students who were able to
answer the online-survey questionnaire. Further explanations were given to the
respondents to reduce misunderstandings resulting to unusable inputs. It took 5 days
for the researchers to complete and summarize the data.

After conducting this study, the average results of CUXOS score among
the 32 participants, which is expected to be 50 participants, is 23.273. The score range
of 21 to 30 belongs to the Mild Anxiety group, according to the CUXOS severity cut off.
Compared to the mean average score, 55% of the participants scored equal to or above
21 in the CUXOS anxiety severity cutoff. Most of then are in the Mild anxiety range. The
45% percent experienced minimal to no anxiety at all.

On average, most of the college students in Mapua University experience little

test anxiety according to their CUXOS scores. They are likely only to have minimal
anxiety on the test. Although some may still experience more anxiety like 15.62% of the
respondents, the test anxiety will likely only decrease the individual’s test score slightly.

Some college students have a high test score and a low anxiety severity while
the reverse also exists wherein the CUXOS score is high and the Test score is also
relatively high. Both which happen more than once, which makes predicting how much
test anxiety will affect some student’s score more difficult. Although anxiety can affect
test score, its effect is mild possibly because the test score is dependent on other
factors to answer the test. Compared to other studies such as conducted by Rana and
Mahmood (2010) which showed that there is a significant negative correlation between
test anxiety scores and student’s achievement scores, the same result is not replicated
in the college student’s instance. However the study conducted by Zhang (2014) is true
in this case wherein scores showed a low predictive model.

The researchers wanted to prove and give emphasis that anxiety in a student
can affect their test scores, and with the conducted study, it was done. Not only will this
benefit the students, but also the teachers, parents, and the school institutions as to just
how big of a deal test anxiety is. A latent function from the conducted study is the
society’s deeper understanding of today’s generation and the effect anxiety brings when
they answer exams, and help these teenagers take away the status quo of grades being
their front face. From the data gathered, the researchers concluded that there is no
significant correlation between the anxiety of a first year college student and their
academic performance. While the average level of anxiety they mostly experience is
minimal in CUXOS standards.

References:

Magtubo, C.A. (2016, September 02). Mental health in the Philippines: by the numbers.
Mims Today. Retrieved from https://today.mims.com/mental-health-in-the-
philippines--by-the-numbers

McCraty, R. (2007). When anxiety causes your brain to jam, use your heart. Institute of
Heart Math. HeartMath Research Center, Institute of HeartMath, Boulder Creek,
CA

McGraw-Hill Education (2016). Test anxiety and academic performance. McGraw-Hill

Education. Retrieved from https://www.mheducation.ca/blog/test-anxiety-
academic-performance/

Moleta, D., Ribeiro, F., & Clemente, A. (2017). Fatores Determinantes Para O
Desempenho Acadêmico: Uma Pesquisa Com Estudantes De Ciências
Contábeis. Capital Científico, 15(3), 48–64. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=afh&AN=124318809&site=ehost-live

Rix, J. (2015). How anxiety scrambles your brain and makes it hard to learn. The
Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/21/how-anxiety-scrambles-
your-brain-and-makes-it-hard-to-learn

Stankovska, G., Dimitrovski, D., Angelkoska, S., Ibraimi, Z., & Uka, V. (2018). Emotional
Intelligence, Test Anxiety and Academic Stress among University Students.
Bulgarian Comparative Education Society. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED586176&site=ehost-live