gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Cognitive test anxiety has been shown to influence medical exam performance. However, medical students have already proven their good test performance as mandatory access to medical school and should therefore be able to handle test situations easily.

Study purposes

• defining the extent of test anxiety in medical students
• analysing a relation between test anxiety, self assessment and exam performance
• defining the need to implement and improve coping strategies

Materials and Methods: The Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance Scale (CTAAP [1]) was implemented to determine the extent of anxiety in exam situations. We generated a survey consisting of the CTAAP and questions concerning the students’ self-evaluation in oral and written exams. The survey was answered by 53 students.

Before and after the exam, the individual CTAAP-score was analysed and correlated with the students’ self-evaluation and with the effect of having taken part in an exam simulation (participating group, PG) or not (control group, CG).

Results: Cognitive test anxiety was present in 43% of students’ population. The percentage of students affected was higher in the PG than in the CG. High levels of anxiety were associated with lower expected grades in the upcoming written examination (Pearson correlation coefficient (Pcc): 0.54) and lower performance in the real examination (Pcc: 0.39). The mean value of the CTAAP in the PG before the exam simulation was higher than in the CG (PG: 57.38±19.16 (n=13); CG: 53.36 ±8.89 (n=11)) and decreased in both groups (PG: 54.77±16.00; CG: 50.82±6.38).

Conclusions: High CTAAP-test-levels were associated with much lower expected and lower final exam performance than in the group with low anxiety levels. The high prevalence of test anxiety in medical students along with the negative impact on students’ self-evaluation and their academic performance highlights the great demand for improving and developing new coping strategies for test anxiety [2], [3].