A Study to Assess the Correlation between Academic Test Anxiety and Self-Esteem among Undergraduate Students

Introduction The time of examination and evaluation is a stressful period where stress is on its highest levels. To some extent, low level of stress can help in motivating the students; however, on the contrary more stress can be discouraging. It will make students exhausted, overwhelmed, and confused. So, the present study focuses on assessing the academic test anxiety and self-esteem among undergraduates. The objectives of the study were: determining the academic test anxiety and self-esteem among students and find out the correlation and association between academic test anxiety and self-esteem. Materials and Methods A quantitative research approach had been adopted and descriptive correlational survey design was used to identify the academic test anxiety and self-esteem among first year students from selected constituent colleges of NITTE (Deemed to be University) at Paneer campus. The sample consisted of 300 first year undergraduate students. The participants were selected using convenient sampling technique. The data were collected using the sociodemographic pro forma, standardized Westside Test Anxiety Scale and State Self-Esteem Scale. The data were computed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics like Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient test, Fisher's exact value, and chi-square value. Result Majority of (79.9%) of the participants were in the age group of 18 to 19 years. The mean age of the participants was 18.56 +/- 0.928 with minimum age 17 and maximum age of 21. Regarding entry level percentage of marks (Pre-University Course/+ 2), 34.7% of participants secured with more than 80% of marks in their entry level examination followed by 38.2% of the participants scoring between 70 and 79% and only 16 (5.6%) participants counted between 45 and 59%. Majority (76%) of the participants were females. The study reveals that 32.3% of the participants experienced moderate level of test anxiety and 17% of the participants experienced severe level of test anxiety followed by 34.7% participants experiencing mild levels of test anxiety. The mean test anxiety score was 2.97 +/- 0.55 which indicates that average participants were showing moderate level of test anxiety. There is a significant medium positive correlation between academic test anxiety and self-esteem ( r value = 0.497 and p <= 0.001). As the p -value was more than 0.05 ( p = 0.09, p = 0.86), there is no significant association found between previous academic performance with level of academic test anxiety or self-esteem. Conclusion The study concludes that, students' self-esteem can be enhanced and test anxiety can be reduced by creating an enabling environment for mentoring where they can practice assertiveness skills which will in turn boost their confidence to perform all academic tasks successfully.