Life Case

A person's knowledge is assessed continuously throughout their life. People often develop a type of anxiety called test anxiety. Spielberger and Sarason (1989) define test anxiety as a situation-specific trait that refers to the anxiety states and worry conditions that are experienced during examinations. At all stages of education, more importantly college level, tests has been believed to be an important factor for our future. People from younger kids to adults are being evaluated with respect to their academic skills. Zollar and Ben-chain (1990) have the opinion that "the era in which we live is a test-conscious age in which the lives of many people are not only greatly influenced, but are also determined by their test performance".

Test anxiety is a serious problem for many students. It has been described as the most powerful obstacle to learning in an educational setting (Matthew, Tracy & Scott, 2000). Past research has linked test anxiety to fear of negative evaluation, dislike of testing and less effective study skills and has been identified as one of the factors that impair academic performance. Previous research linked the development of test anxiety to self-concept. Self-concept is the overall sum of self-referent information that an individual has processed, stored and organized in a systematic manner (Spielberger & Sarason, 1989).

Spielberger and Vagg (1995) viewed that test anxiety as a situation-specific anxiety rather than a trait anxiety. Trait anxiety is a constant personality characteristic; whereas state anxiety is a temporary emotional state (Spielberger et al., 1978). According to Spielberger and Vagg (1995) test-anxious individual is more prone to react with excessive anxiety (such as, worry, negative thoughts, nervousness and physiological arousal) across evaluative situations.