Chapter II

Review of Literature and Studies

This chapter includes the related literature and studies done

locally and abroad. This related literature and studies contribute

insights and concepts towards the conceptualization of the current

study

Foreign Literature

Anxiety is a common phenomenon that constitutes a cause of

poor academic performance among students worldwide. It is a kind

of self-preoccupation which is manifested as self-minimization and

results in negative cognitive evaluation, lack of concentration,

unfavorable physiological reactions and academic failure. Though

anxiety is a normal reaction to certain situations. A small level

of anxiety is normal, but severe anxiety can be a serious problem.

Academic anxiety can become more damaging over time. As a student’s

academic performance suffers, the anxiety level related to certain

academic tasks increases (Huberty, 2012).

It is a common undeniable fact in human life that influences

an individual’s accomplishment in numerous situations, an average

level of anxiety is useful in sustaining people hardworking and

being responsible of what they have to do (Kahan, 2008 & Donnelly,

2009). Anxiety was defined by (Asadullapoor, Fati, & Gharaee, 2010)

as an undesirable and unclear feeling like when a person predicts

a danger situation. Extreme level of anxiety impends individual’s

mental and physical health and also has a negative effect on their

personal, social, familial, occupational, and educational

performance (Zahrakar, 2008)

Test anxiety is “the set of phenomenological, psychological,

and behavioral responses that accompany concern about possible

negative consequences or failure on an exam or similar evaluative

situations” (Chapell, Blanding, Takahashi, Silverstein, Newman,

Gubi, & McCann, 2005, p. 268). Kirkland and Hollandsworth (1980)

define test anxiety as “a constellation of behaviors that have a

debilitating effect on academic performance” (p. 431).

Students of higher institutions are associated with anxiety

especially when they are preparing for examinations.The following

are fundamental to students anxiety in schools: Lower courses'

grades, decreased motivation and increased stress (Cizek and Burg,

2006; Zeidner, 1998; Segool et al., 2013).Examination anxiety is

a combination of physiological, over-arousal, tension and somatic

symptoms along with worries, dread, fear of failure and

catastrophizing that occur before or during examination situations

(Zeidner, 1998). Examination anxiety has a huge negative impact,

hence students’ low academic performance in schools. Test anxiety

is not completely bad. In fact, a low level of it is normal to

maintain concentration, motivation and help the students to stay

mentally and physically attentive. However, high level of test

anxiety is dangerous and may cause emotional or physical suffering,

attention difficulties and emotional worries. It interferes with

students’ capability to get ready for and do on tests. Thus, high

level of anxiety exerts a negative effect on school learning.

The prevalence of anxiety enhances emotional distress which

emanates stress in students’ concentration and creates

psychological worries. It should be noted that the presence of low

academic performance should not be attributed to students’

intellectual problems but the examination situations which create

in students tensed minds that serve as factor of poor academic

performance. Researches suggested that between 25 and 40 percent

of students experience examination anxiety. But students with

disabilities tend to have high rates of examination anxiety (Nelson

and Harwood, 2011; Cassady, 2010) Zeider (1998). Students who

experience examination anxiety tend to be easily distracted during

examinations, hence, experience difficulty in comprehending

relatively simple instructions and trouble in organizing and

recalling of relevant information.

Cassady (2010) posited the difference between generalized

anxiety disorders and examination anxiety. He explained that

general anxiety disorders are characterized by trait anxiety that

results to students experiencing higher levels of stresses across

a wide range of situations. In contrast, students that are prone

to examination anxiety have a state of anxiety that results to

higher levels of nervousness that are specific to examinations.

The symptoms of examination anxiety range from moderate to severe

anxiety. Students who exhibit moderate symptoms are able to perform

relatively well on examinations. On the other hand, students with

severe anxiety experience panic (Cherry, 2012); the common

physical symptoms include: headache, upset stomach, feeling of

fear, feeling of dread, shortness of breath, sweating, pacing or

fidgeting, crying, racing thoughts and blanking out. Lyness (2012)

explained that during the state of excitement or stress, the body

releases adrenaline. Adrenaline is known to cause physical

symptoms that accompany examination anxiety such as increased

heart beat-rate, sweating and rapid-breathing. In many cases,

adrenaline is good; it is helpful when dealing with stressful

situations, assuring alertness and preparation. But to some

students, the symptoms are difficult or impossible to handle,

making them impossible to focus on examinations.

Students would be able to function more effectively and focus

more on academics, reducing behavioral, attendance, and social

concerns for students themselves, teachers, and administrators

(Bostick & Anderson, 2009; Lothmann et al., 2011; Marks et al.,

2010; Muris et al., 2002; Thompson et al., 2013; Thompson, & Trice-

Black, 2012; Von Der Embse et al., 2013). Involving parents could

help create consistent support and potentially encourage them to

seek help for their own needs, if they exist (Bogels et al., 2003).
 Though anxiety is a common mental health concern among indivi

viduals of all ages and has an abundance of literature, there are

areas that could benefit from further exploration (Keough &

Schmidt, 2012; Leikanger et al., 2012). Existing literature that

focuses on the prevalence and comparing level of anxiety between

high school grade levels is not as wide spread (Muris et al.,

2010).

Local Literature

It has been recognized that anxiety plays significant role in

students’ learning and academic performance (Tobias, 1979). Reilly

and Lewis (1991, p.104) say that anxiety is hampering for young

people's academic achievements.

Anxiety is strongly linked with emotional depression.

According to Science Daily (June 26, 2009), the effect of anxiety

on academic achievement is not always obvious but new research by

the Economic and Social Research Council suggests that there may

be hidden costs. The research found that anxious individuals find

it harder to avoid distractions and take more time to turn their

attention from one task to the next than their less anxious fellow

students. This research was conducted by Eysenck (2009). These

findings have clear practical implications in the classroom. “A

lot of the negative effects of anxiety appears to be caused by

difficulties with controlling attention. This suggests that

training techniques designed to enhance attentional control - the

ability to ignore distractions and to switch attention from one

task to another - could help anxious students to achieve their

academic potential,” he explains. In addition, the study showed

that anxious individuals often perform at a comparable level to

nonanxious ones but only do so at a greater cost in terms of effort

or perhaps long-term stress. This shows that it is important that

teachers focus not only on whether a student’s academic performance

seems to be satisfactory but also on how much effort the student

had to put in to achieve that level. Anxious students may be trying

desperately hard just to keep up and this could be at great

psychological cost.

Literature on test anxiety shows that some of the factors

that influence students’ reactions to tests are related to test

validity, time limit, test techniques, test format, length,

testing environment and clarity of test instructions (Young,

1999). Another factor that increases test anxiety and affects

performance is time limit. According to Ohata (2005), learners

sometimes felt pressured to think that they had to organize their

ideas in a short period of time. Another factor that affects

negatively students’ performance is the inappropriate test

technique. Young (1991) found that students felt anxious when they

had studied for hours for a test and then found in the test question

types which they had no experience about. Last of all, Ohata’s

study (2005) revealed that most of the participants in the study

admitted that they feared taking tests, because test-taking

situations would make them fearful about the negative consequences

of getting a bad grade. This result has been found in many studies.

Furthermore, research indicates that anxiety affects performance

negatively not only at school but at the university level as well.

As the literature show that the reason why students

experiencing test anxiety is because tests are used not just to

measure the ability of a student but also it measures the

educational program, this will lead to a student to feel the

pressure on themselves

Foreign Studies

Ormord (2000, p.492) has view about the relationship between

anxiety and academic achievements is that anxiety and academic

achievements has been a difficult relationship to clearly clarify.

Another research conducted by Davis (2004) found that test- anxiety

decreases attention span, memory and concentration, then leads to

low academic performance. Masson, Hoyois, Pcadot, Nahama, Petit

and Ansseau (2004) found that high school students with high test

anxiety had poor school performance. Eysenck (2001) found that

test-anxiety creates irrelevant thoughts, preoccupation, and

decreased attention and concentration that leads to academic

difficulties. When attention and concentration are impaired, this

will disrupt memory and will lead to low academic achievement

(Chen, Li, 2000 and Sanders, 2001, cited in Needham, 2006)

 A lot of research has been conducted in order to identify in

what way test anxiety affects performance, considering the fact

that this phenomenon has a variety of sources. According to one

review of the research on test anxiety different possibilities

have been examined. For example, some studies have identified the

root of test anxiety as lying in students’ poor preparation. Those

studies suggest that some students ineffectively organize or

process information and they perform poorly on tests because of

this. Naveh-Benjamin et al (1987) have found that when compared

with less anxious students, highly test-anxious students have

difficulties in organizing material to be learned. As several

research studies have noted, highly test anxious students have

less effective study habits compared to their low anxious

counterparts (Culler and Holahan, 1980). This view is also

supported by Hembree (1988), who suggests that a lack of effective

study skills contributes to poor performance under evaluative

conditions, which in leads to intensifying the feelings of anxiety

when it comes to performing in consecutive examinations. Support

of this research emerged from treatment studies that have

concentrated on helping students to improve study skills. The

results of these studies suggest that study skills can also help

to reduce test anxiety and improve performance. At this point, it

is important to mention Zeidner’s (1998) view of the problem. He

explains that the state of test anxiety cannot be explained by

lack of work or exam performance, because highly motivated students

also suffer from its debilitating impact. He states that academic

performance depends on the information processing routines that

directly control learning and comprehension of classroom material,

such as focused attention, working memory and long-term memory

retrieval, processes that may be biased by personality factors

such as test anxiety.

According to Kennedy T. Hill and Allan Wigfield (2014), test

anxiety is one of the most important aspects of negative motivation

and has direct debilitating effects on school performance. Dusek

(1980, p. 88) defines test anxiety as "an unpleasant feeling or

emotional state that has physiological and behavioral

concomitants, and that is experienced in formal testing or other

evaluative situations.

Fundamentals of Language Assessment as “a feeling or

nervousness or fear surrounding an assessment. It can occur before,

during or after a test; has the potential to effect test

performance” (Coombe, & Hubley, 2011).

Test anxiety is a major factor which influences students’

academic achievement. According to Marty Sapp (1999), test anxiety

in children is negatively correlated with achievement. Similarly,

Hill and Wigfield (1984) conducted a 5-year longitudinal study

with 700 elementary school children and found a negative

correlation between test anxiety and achievement test scores.

 Turgay Ergene (2011) conducted a study which investigated the

relationships among study habits, test anxiety, achievement,

motivation, and academic success with 510 Turkish tenth grade high

school students. He states in his study that the worry dimension

of test anxiety was negatively associated with academic success.

Researches about test anxiety started during the late 1960s,

largely through a desire to treat its symptoms (Tobias, 1979). By

the 1980s, Test Anxiety had become such a "target for therapy"

that the range of treatments encompassed the "overall evolution"

of anxiety reduction (Denney, 1980, p. 209). Allen, Elias, and

Zlotlow (1980) reviewed 49 treatment studies of college students.

Most treatments produced significant TA reductions; however, only

18% of the treated groups showed significant performance

improvement. Tryon's (1980) review of 85 studies supported these

findings. She suggested that desensitization and other behavioral

techniques attend to the emotional rather than the cognitive

(worry) aspect of test anxiety, so improved performance through

these methods should not be expected. Cognitive modification or

study counseling combined with desensitization seemed more likely

to reduce TA and raise performance.

Early research led by S. Sarason at Yale University and I.

Sarason at the University of Washington. S. Sarason studied test

anxiety in children. Their work (surveyed by Hill, 1972) found

Test Anxiety to appear at about second grade and then to increase

grade by grade, with consistently higher levels for girls than for

boys. Across the elementary years, the construct seemed

increasingly related to poor performance, marks in school, and

grade repetition. The strongest inverse relationships were found

in stressful as opposed to gamelike test conditions. High-test-

anxious (HTA) children functioned poorly when expected to achieve,

but low-anxious children did well in this environment. Similar

findings were reported at the college level by I. Sarason (as

reviewed by Spielberger, Anton, & Bedell, 1976). Under ego-

involving instructions, HTA students declined in performance.

"Under neutral or reassuring conditions high and low anxious

subjects do not differ in their performance levels" (Sarason, 1961,

p. 205).

Putwain (2008) explored the relationship between test anxiety

and academic performance by collecting data from 558 students of

11th grade. These students were selected from different secondary

schools in UK. The correlational analysis indicated that there was

a small but significantly negative relationship between test

anxiety and academic performance. Component of test anxiety scale

and academic performance had very strong relationships with each

other. Similarly, Putwain (2008) conducted another study to find

out the relationship between examination anxiety and examination

grades. The data was collected from a sample of 615 students of

secondary level. These students were selected from different

secondary schools in UK. There were negative correlations of Worry

and Emotionality Components of test anxiety with the examination

grades. The students having higher scores on Test Anxiety-Worry

and Test Anxiety Emotionality components got lower examination

grades. But the students with lower test anxiety scores on both

the components got higher examination grade

Kaya (2004) conducted a research study to find the

relationship of levels of test anxiety with academic achievement

of fifth-grade Turkish students in elementary school. In the

analysis of data, the relationship between test anxiety and

academic achievement was -0.15 (p less than 0.001). It was clear

from these results that there was negative effect of test anxiety

on academic achievement. The students having high test anxiety had

lower achievements and the students having low test anxiety had

higher achievements.

Mcdonald (2001) reviewed a paper for the literature on test

anxiety in school children. He put forward the evidences on the

association of test anxiety with the test performance. It was found

that the relationship between test anxiety and performance was

very strong and test anxiety had strong effect on test performance.

It was also concluded that fear of examinations and test situations

were widely spread and became more prevalent

 Another study was conducted in Iran by Fayegh Yousefi, Mansor

Abu Talib, Mariani Bte Mansor, Rumaya Bte Juhari and Marof Redzuan

(2010). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship

between test anxiety and academic achievement among adolescents in

Sanandaj, Iran. In this article, a self-administered questionnaire

was used for data collection which includes a Test-Anxiety

Inventory (TAI), Grade Point Average (GPA) score and personal

information. The results showed that there was a significant

correlation between test anxiety and academic achievement among

400 adolescents.

In a study which consisted of 114 students in the English

Language Department of Necatibey Education Faculty of Balikesir

University, Turkey, Selami Aydın, Fatih Yavuz and Savaş Yeşilyurt

(2011) examined test anxiety in foreign language learning. In the

study, the following result was found: “Test anxiety causes

physical and psychological problems, affects motivation,

concentration and achievement negatively.”

In another study, Rizwan Akram Rana and Nasir Mahmood (2010)

tried to find the relationship between test anxiety and academic

achievement. Their study showed that there is a significant

negative relationship between test anxiety scores and students’

achievement scores. As a result, these research studies depict

that test anxiety is always negatively correlated with students’

academic achievement.
 Paul and Eriksen (1964) tested the effect of anxiety by giving

a group of first –year students a traditional examination on their

course. The students were aware that the marks of this test would

count on their final grade. Immediately after the test they were

asked to fill in a test anxiety questionnaire and were given a

parallel form of the examination they had previously taken but

this time it was emphasized that the marks would not be taken into

count towards their grade. When the results were analyzed, it was

found that highly anxious students did better on the non-stressful

examination whereas low-anxiety students performed better in the

traditional condition. Sometimes it is the type of test that leads

to test anxiety. Some students become anxious during exams that

require them to demonstrate their knowledge in ways in which they

do not feel comfortable. For example, some students panic when

they find they have to take essay tests. Others become anxious

over oral exams. Different types of tests can make students anxious

(Van Blerkomp, 2009). Apart from these factors, we should mention

Hembree’s study (1988). He found that the conditions that give

rise to differential test anxiety levels include ability, gender

and school grade level. Other research has suggested a difference

in anxiety responses between males and females (King et al., 2000);

with females generally, self-reporting higher levels of test

anxiety symptoms than males.

 The main reason why we find it necessary to conduct a research

with university students is because some studies are limited.

Another reason is related to the fact that this phenomenon affects

vast number of students and impairs their performance. Considering

the fact that test anxiety is a complex and problematic area, it

is necessary to determine the problems, and provide

recommendations on the ways of reducing it, which would be helpful

to both students and teachers.

Yerkes and Dodson (1908) showed in their study that “moderate

levels of anxiety can lead to optimal performance on certain tasks;

nevertheless, performance can deteriorate when anxiety is too high

or low.” Test-anxious children tend to receive low grades, poorer

scores, and perform more poorly on tests (Ergene, 2011). Test

anxiety affects performance in tests, therefore it affects

academic achievements of students because tests are seen as an

indicator of academic achievement. Test anxiety is defined as “the

type of performance anxiety resulting from fear of failure in an

academic evaluation setting” (Horwitz et.al, 1986). Christine

Coombe and Nancy Hubley depict test anxiety in their study.

Local Studies

A study by Remedios E. Basco and Melanio T. Ole of College of

Arts and Science Rizal Technological University, Philippines

(2013) showed that that the level of anxiety of the students affect

their academic performance. The present undertaking attempted to

assess the anxiety level of college freshmen students and relate

the results in terms of the age, gender and academic performance.

The low and negative correlation between Anxiety and GWA suggest

that the higher the academic performance of the students, there

would be lower manifestation of Anxiety.

Myrna D. Reyes (Ed. D) and Aida C. Castillo (2014) conducted

a study to determine the relationship of performance of the

students in the area of Mathematics specifically in Algebra and

Trigonometry and their test anxiety. The respondents of the study

were 120 students who took Algebra in the first semester before

they took Trigonometry for the second semester of the said year.

The students obtained a poor performance rating in Algebra and

Trigonometry. The students moderately felt test anxiety in

mathematics. Test anxiety is considered a factor that might affect

the students’ mathematics performance. Therefore, it is concluded

that test anxiety is one of the factors which is responsible for

students’ underachievement and low performance but it can be

managed by appropriate training of students in dealing with worry

and emotional factors causing test anxiety.

This study was conducted to determine the Effects of Test

Anxiety to the Academic Performance of Students. Fifty (50)

students were used as a sample in conducting the survey. Each of

the respondents are given the same questionnaires to answer. This

research specifically bounds the study regarding only the effects

of Test Anxiety on the academic performance of students, causes,

effects, and remedies will also be discussed. The researchers will

be conducting the research within the vicinity of PUP-Sta. Mesa.

The application of the study will be done through surveys and

interviews. However, the study is only limited to the views of

students of Polytechnic University of the Philippines Senior High

School Academic Year 2017-2018, this study does not cover students

from other grade levels or students from other schools. The study

will not consider non-academic performance but may consider non-

academic effects which may cause to differ academic performance.