ABSTRACT

Aims:

The objective of this study is to assess symptoms of test anxiety among medical students and its association with various academic, social and health-related factors. The specific aims are to determine: the prevalence of symptoms of test anxiety, the factors responsible for and different patterns of test anxiety, the correlation of socio-demographic data with test anxiety in medical students and the attitude towards coping strategies developped by them to deal with test anxiety.

Methods:

A sample size of 200 medical students meeting the inclusion criteria and giving consent was chosen from all professional years from the Ras Al-Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University. The tools used were Visual Analogue Scale indicating severity of anxiety, Test Anxiety Inventory, and a self-designed questionnaire to correlate the various predisposing factors.

Results:

Results showed 45.5% of the students felt severe examination-related anxiety. Female gender, peer pressure, insufficient sleep, mealtime irregularity, inability to concentrate, concern about previous examination results, perception of the course load as heavy and interpersonal issues were found to be correlated with the severity of examination- related anxiety.

Conclusion:

Examination-related anxiety has a great impact on medical students, often leading to maladaptive behaviors which may have a negative effect on both examination performance and long-term mental and physical health. We recommend that students receive counseling to cope with this anxiety.