A study on the impact of stress, anxiety and exam fear on the academic achievements of students

1. Project on Problems of Learning
Topic: A study on the impact of stress, anxiety and exam fear on the
academic achievements of students
Abstract
I conducted a psychologytestfor measuring the impact of stress anxiety and exam fearon
the academic achievementofstudents. I conducted the test on the 41 students of 8 B class
in St Anne's higher secondaryschool Kurianad. From the testI understand that the
impact of stress anxiety and exam fear we're affecting the academic achievementof
students. By giving motivation and support we canmanage the problem.
Introduction
Learning is the act of acquiring new or modifying and reinforcing existing knowledge,
behavior, skills, values or performance and may involve synthesizing different types of
information. Learning doesn’thappen all at once, but it builds upon and is shaped by previous
knowledge. Thus learning may be viewed as a process rather than collection of factual and
procedural knowledge. Human learning may occuras a part of education, personal
development, schooling or training.
Learning disabled are those who suffer from serious learning disabilities. These children exhibit
enteric capacities in terms of learning and understanding in comparisonto the normal children
of their age or class. In fact learning disability helplessness that can be affected by the suffers in
terms of his academic performance is the same way as experienced by a physically handicapped
personin terms of his physical or by a mentally handicapped in terms of his mental functioning.
Learning disabilities look very different from one child to another. One child may struggle with
reading and spelling and while another may a lover of books butcannot understand
mathematics. Another child may have difficulty in understanding what others are saying or
communicating out load. The problems are very different but they all are learning disorders.
Psychologicalvariables
Psychological variables refer to elements in psychological experiments that can be changed
such as variable available information or the time taken to perform a given task. Variable can be
classified as either dependent or independent. Forinstance, when investigating the effects of
sleep deprivation on test performance, factors such as age, gender, academic back ground may
leave a significant effect on the result. The variables in problems of learning based on
psychological variables are stress, anxiety, fear.

2. Stress
Stress is the body's reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body
reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part
of life. A primary meaning of stress is the level of importance of something physically. Stress
means the level of pressure or force excreted on something. Stress often results from a physical
or emotional change in one’s life. Frequent headache, dizziness, grinding teeth, cold is some
symptoms of stress. Stress affects learning and memory. Although it is known that long term
stress can affect the brain learning and memory region. A new finding discovers that short term
stress lasting as little as a few hours can also impair brain cell communication in their critical
areas.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, and
worrying. Sometimes anxiety is easy to identify — like when a child is feeling nervous before a
test at school. Other times anxiety in the classroom can look like something else entirely an
upset stomach, disruptive or angry behavior, or even a learning disorder. These disorders affect
how we feel and behave and can cause physical symptoms. Mild anxiety is vague and
unsettling, while severe anxiety can seriously affect day-to-day living.
Exam fear
Exam fear is a very common phenomenon among many a student, and it has a disastrous effect,
no doubt. Exam fear is the phase of anxiety a child may experience during the onset of exams.
This anxiety can result in poorperformance in exam or even sickness which may make a child
avoid exams. However, the fear of exams is not experienced by every child. Those children who
are bit anxious about examinations and those who have feeling of standing up to their parents’
demand may be the victim of exam fear. The main causes of exam fear are pressure of parents,
too much expectations and low self- esteem.
Needand significance ofthe study
Any individual’s success orfailure depends upon his or her perception about oneself. In other
words, while doing any work how one perceives oneself. Whether I do this problem, whether
the given problem is simple or complex, may I attain success ornot all such perceptible factors
determine the outcome. Strictly speaking any kind of failure or success in the academic
achievement will be determined by the stress anxiety and exam fear that the students face. If all
these things are not in a sustainable condition, the academic achievement of the student would
jeopardies. It is important to measure the stress anxiety and exam fear of the students in general

3. and to study its effects on the students’ academic performance particularly on their academic
achievement. The higher level of confidence generates enthusiasm for the given activity, but
stress, anxiety and exam fear will make differences in the performance of any activity.
Therefore, studying the impact of stress, anxiety and exam fear in the academic achievement
assumes importance.
Statement of the problem is as follows.
A study on the impact of stress, anxiety and exam fearon the academic achievements of
students
Objectives of the study
 To understand student’s problem in learning
 To know the problems that the students face during exams
 To identify the cause for the stress in students.
 To realize the level in their problem-solving capacity
 To identify the reason behind the anxiety of students.
Methodology
For understanding the problems of learning and how it affects the academic achievement of
students, I selected the topic stress, anxiety and exam fear of students. For that, I prepared a
questionnaire with 40 questions. Each question was related to stress, anxiety and fear of exam
of students. I distributed the samples in 8B in St Anne's higher secondaryschoolkurianad.
There were 41 students in that class.
Analysis and interpretation of the data
Analysis of the data means studying the tabulated materials in order to determine inherent facts
of meaning. Analysis of data is the heart of the research report. It involves breaking down
existing groups, complex factors in fact and putting together in new arrangement for the
purposeof interpretation.
The questionnaire is mainly divided in to three set.
1. Analysis of stress among students(1 to 15)
2. Analysis of anxiety among students (15 to 28)
3. Analysis of exam fear among students.(28 to 40)

4. Analysis of stress among students
Sl
No. Questions
Percentage
Yes No
1. Do you feel comfort in your school? 40 60
2. Do you study regularly? 40 60
3. Do you have any obstacles in learning from your family 80 20
4. Do you have any ambition about your carrier? 30 70
5. Do you feel tired when doing schoolwork? 72 28
6. Do you like continue study? 40 60
7. Do you have difficulty in planning and organizing task? 36 64
8. Are you interested to come to schooldaily? 26 74
9. Do you have a habit of writing short notes by yours self 10 90
10. Are you lazy and try to skip the class? 60 40
11. Do you feel heavy with your syllabus? 80 20
12. Do you feel stressed when you are unable to understand the
class?
72 28
13. Do you like to attend club activities? 60 40
14. Do you ever participate in club activities? 60 40
15. Are you able to finish your work within time? 20 80
Students are unaware of the benefits that they get from learning. Only 40% of the students feel
comfortable in the school60% of students are uncomfortable in the school. 60% of the students
don’tdo their homework regularly but they are interested in group activities. 72% of students
are stressed when they are unable to understand the class and only 20% of students have the
habit of writing short notes by themselves. 30% of students have a well vision about their future
and carrier but 80 % of students are unable to complete their works in time and they are ready to
skip their class due to laziness. Among children 72% are feeling tired when they are doing their
homework and 80% says that the syllabus is very heavy for them.
Analysis of anxiety among students
Sl
No. Questions
Percentage
Yes No
16. Are you scared to enter into laboratories? 80 20
17. Are you able to do mental calculations while doing problems? 60 40
18. Do frequent exams bother you? 70 30
19.
Do you have the tendency of missing some questions in the
exam due to anxiety?
70 30
20. Are you studying the lesson regularly? 30 70
21. Do you have the habit of clearing doubts byasking to your
teachers as friends?
40 60
22. Have you ever felt that you are good for nothing? 60 40

5. 23. Are you able to read properly? 40 60
24. Do you have the habit of writing dairy every day? 10 90
25. Are you maintaining good communication among friends? 40 60
26. Do you share your problems with your friends? 40 60
27. Do you have tuition for any subject? 60 40
28. Do you make mistake while writing? 60 40
80% of students are scared to enter the laboratory and 60% of students are not able to do the
mental calculations. 70% of students have the tendency of missing some questions in the exam
due to anxiety but 70% of students are not studying the lesson regularly.60 % of students make
mistake while writing. 60 % of students are feeling that they are good for nothing.
Analysis of exam fear
Sl
No Questions
Percentage
Yes No
29. Do you have any prize in quiz or debate completion? 10 90
30. Do you get poorergrade than expected? 70 30
31. Do you have difficulty in memorization? 40 60
32. Do you leave tears in learning? 40 60
33. Are you able to answer the questions asked by the teachers
without any tension and fear?
40 60
34. Do you have trouble in summarizing your learned concept? 70 30
35. Are you able to relate studied conceptto the situations? 30 70
36. Are you scared at your teacher? 70 30
37. Do you sweat a lot during the exam hours? 80 20
38. Do you feel relaxed after completion of the exams? 50 50
39. Are you able to complete your exam within time? 40 60
40. Do you worry about the result of your exams? 60 40
70% 0f the students got poorergrade than expected and 40% of students have the difficulty in
memorizing. 70 % 0f them are not able to summarize what they studied and can’t relate concept
to the situations. 80% of students sweat a lot during the exam time and 60% of students are not
able to complete their exam within time. 60% students are worry about their result too.

6. Graphical representationon stress
Graphical representationon anxiety
Graphical representationon exam fear
0
10
20
30
40
without stress stress
graph on stress
graph on stress
0
10
20
30
40
anxiety without anxiety
graph on anxiety
graph on anxiety
0
10
20
30
40
exam fear without exam fear
graph on exam fear
graph on exam fear

7. Majorfindings of the study
 The findings of the study indicates that majority of the students are not comfortable in the
schooldue to over loaded syllabus and stress from the parents and teachers. They find
difficulties in planning and organizing what they have studied.
 Most of the students often lack the willingness to do hard work and clear their doubts.
 Most of the students have low confidence to present their ideas, due to average
memorizing capacity, ability to summarize problems and ability to relate the concepts
which they have studied.
Conclusion
The major findings helps the investigator to conclude that the majority of the high school
students have stress, anxiety and exam fear due to lack of supportfrom teachers and parents,
heavy work load and less effort taken from students ,this will in turn impact the academic
performance of the students.
Educationalimplications or suggestions
The investigator suggests the following implications with the help of research findings.
 Work load given to students must be reduced to a certain extend.
 Syllabus must provide equal importance in both curricular and co-curricular activities, so
that students can have a good work life balance.
 Parents and teachers must be given counseling to teach them how to build students
mental health with positive attitudes and confidence.
 Students must be given counseling to teach them how to organize their studies. Those
students who need special attention must be provided with the same from schoolas well
as from home.
Reference
 Aggarwal , JC. (2005). Physical learning and development, new delhi: shipra
publications
 Bandura, a (1979). The social learning perspective, New Delhi: vikas publications
 Breadburn, N.M (1969). The structure of psychological well being, Chicago: aldin
 Jourard ,S.M (1968). Disclosing man to himself. Van Nostrand, Reihold.