STRESS AND ANXIETY AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS BEFORE EXAM

Mohammed Jegir,

Ulanova T.V,

Ruseikin N.S

Physiology Department , Institute of medicine,

National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University, Saransk, Mordovia

Abstract. Examination stress among college students has been a topic of interest for many years. College students experience high stress due to various reasons such as lack of preparation, style of their study and lack of needed information. When stress is perceived negatively or becomes excessive, it leads to anxiety before and during examinations and ultimately affects their academic achievement. The present study was conducted to know the examinations stress felt by college students under Arts, Science and Commerce stream of education. Further comparison was done to find out the level of stress felt by college students enrolled in under graduate and post graduate programmes. The sample consisted of 90 college students drawn using stratified random sampling method from two girl‟s colleges. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher to access examination stress and anxiety among college students. The result shows correlation between examination stress and anxiety of college students. On comparing the stress and anxiety among students of different stream, the students of Arts was found having highest stress and anxiety during examination followed by commerce students. There was no significant difference found in the stress and anxiety level of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Key Words: Examination Stress, Anxiety, College students, Arts, Science, Commerce

INTRODUCTION

Academic stress can be conceptualized as a student‟s interactions between environmental stressors, the student‟s cognitive appraisal of and coping with the academic-related stressors, and psychological or physiological response to the stressors (Lee & Larson, 2000; Lou & Chi, 2000). Academic stress is a pervasive problem across countries, demands to perform well in examination the students are not able to enjoy their academic life and it becomes joyless and burden for them. Stress may be considered as any physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental unrest and that may be a factor in disease causation. Physical and chemical factors that can cause stress include trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses and injuries of any sort. Emotional causes of stress and tension are numerous and varied. A mild degree of stress and strain can sometimes be beneficial. For example, feeling mildly stressed when carrying out a project or assignment often compels us to do a good job, focus better and work. But if the students feel intense stress before and during examination, it has consequences for mental health and somatic symptoms (Lee & Larson, 2000; Verma & Gupta, 1990). As per the report of Banerjee's (2001), every year about 25,000 students in the age group of 18 to 20 years commit suicide during the examination month (i.e. March to June). Due to high examination stress, students spent less time in socializing and get engaged in passive and active leisure which may further magnify the effects of examination stress (Lee and Larson, 2000).

Stress is something that causes strong feeling of worry or anxiety. It is a normal part of life and it is not energetically.

Higher Education system and Examination System in India

Education is critical for economic and social development. It is crucial for building human capabilities and for opening opportunities. Without education, development can neither be broad based nor sustained. Recognizing the vital contribution of education to development, the government of India accorded due priority to education after independence and set the targets of providing access and equity at all level of education. But due to constitutional obligation of universalization of elementary education and emphasis led by international community on „Education For All‟ (EFA), elementary stage of education got highest priority in government‟s policies and programs. The second priority has been given to develop higher education system. Elementary education creates the foundation for further learning whereas the importance of secondary education lies in the fact that it forms a link between elementary education and higher education. But higher education system adds real value to human.

Reforming examination system to reduce examination stress at higher education level

It was felt very strongly by academician that there is a need of change in the examination system of higher education. They advocated introduction of the globally accepted credit based choice (CBC) system. Under this system, students can choose subjects on their own and can also ask the examiner to conduct the examination when the students are ready for them. "Subjects and date of examination are not imposed on students in the credit based choice (CBC) system. While the credit based choice (CBC) system has been operative in several countries since quite some time now, in India very few universities have introduced this system so far. Only 30 out of 569 universities in the country have implemented the system. Presently, most of the universities and colleges in India are practicing the annual and semester systems of examinations. "If we adopt the CBC system by revamping the traditional method of examination systems, we expect the gross enrollment in higher education to be increased and knowledge of students to improve.

Although, there are many researches on relationship between examination stress and anxiety among adolescents. But they are mostly related to high school. students. A dearth of studies on relationship between examination stress and anxiety among university student was found and that is the rationale behind taking this study to focus on college students. The primary goal of this paper is to examine how academic stress affects college students. It should be of interest for education policy makers in India to enhance their understanding of Indian students‟ examination stress and anxiety and to develop ideas about how to best utilize and manage the education system to promote the optimum academic performance and emotional development of students in India. Another goal of this paper is to establish a conceptual framework that includes the links between examination stress and anxiety in Indian Universities. This should be useful in guiding future researchers to conduct studies in the area of academic-related stress and anxiety in India. Therefore the study was taken up to find out the examination stress and anxiety of college students with the help of following objectives:

1) To find out the examination stress and anxiety among college student during exam.

2) To compare the level of examination stress and anxiety among college students of graduation and post graduation level.

3) To compare the level of examination stress and anxiety during exam among

Result & Discussion Table No: 1.1 Correlation between examination stress and anxiety among college students

Examination Stress	31.41		5.04		0.79
Anxiety		27.46		5.69

The table 1.1 shows that the correlation between examination stress and anxiety is highly significant So the H0 1 is rejected which, states that there is no relationship between examination stress and anxiety among college students. Students of college feel stress before examination and it leads to anxiety. High aspirations, poor study habits, more study problems, change in medium of instructions and low socio economic conditions, test anxiety, fear of failure, competition for grades, excessive academic load and concentration and memory are the factors responsible for examination stress and anxiety (G Manjula and Vijaylaxmi A.H.M. 2012; Edmund 1984; Joost, 2007). It has been established through researches that moderate amount of stress helps to motivate students and at times increase their performance (Moore, Burrows & Dalziel, 1992). But excess of it leads to negative consequences among college students. Kohlon's (1983) study revealed that lack of parental help, congenial examination system, living up to parental expectation, attitude of the teachers and fear of examination were the stress causing factors.

Table No: 1.2 Mean and SD of examination stress and anxiety among college students of Arts, Science and Commerce background

Examination Stress						Anxiety
N		Mean		SD		N		Mean		SD
Science	30		31.05		5.72		30		26.6		5.04

The above table 1.2 depicts that the students of Arts students feel high level of examination stress (Mean= 33.45) as compared to the students of Science (mean= 31.05) and Commerce (Mean= 29.75) stream. The mean value shown for the anxiety in the above table no. 1.2 shows the similar trend. Students from Arts stream feels more anxious (Mean= 29.7) than students of Science (Mean=26.6) and Commerce (Mean= 26.1). This might be because of the nature of the subjects.

Table No: 4.3 Mean, SD and t value of examination stress and anxiety among under graduated and post graduate students of Science, Arts and Commerce stream.

Examination stress	UG		30.5	6.75		0.25
PG		31.6			4.81
Anxiety	UG		25.3	5.49		1.02
PG		27.9			4.43

It can be seen in the above table that perceived examination stress for students of Science and Arts stream does not differ much at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The t value for level of anxiety of students at UG and PG level was not found significant. That means level of education does not make much difference in examination stress and anxiety felt by the students. However, in commerce stream, undergraduate students perceive higher level of stress and anxiety as compared to postgraduate students.

Conclusion: Stress is marked by overly high performance standards, with high levels of worry, self-criticism of attention while preparing for or taking exams (Altmaier, 1983, p. 52). Too much stress can interfere with how a student prepares, concentrates, and performs. It was found in the study that examination stress is highly correlated with level of anxiety in college students. Among the students of Arts, Science and Commerce stream, the students of arts feels highest level of examination stress and anxiety followed by the students of Commerce stream. The least amount of examination stress and anxiety was found among students of science stream. When the level of stress and anxiety before and during the examination was compared between undergraduate and post graduate students, it was found that graduate and post graduate students feel more or less equal level of stress and anxiety during examinations. Some college students do not know how to properly prepare for a test and will perform poorly and are anxious as a result. More emphasis is needed on understanding the impact of examinations on students, on identifying vulnerable individuals, and on the appropriateness of the current examination process (Fisher, 1994).

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