Adolescent stress during the preparation period of a high-stakes test: the high school entrance exam in Türkiye

Abstract

Tests with serious consequences are known to cause test anxiety, and thus are widely investigated. The high school entrance exam is taken by around 600.000 Turkish eighth graders once every year and only one fifth of the applicants can be placed in the schools they compete for. For this reason the high school entrance exam generates a stressful environment. In most studies, test anxiety is operationalized as a person confronts an evaluative situation like an exam. Nevertheless, important tests have long preparation periods that may be as stressful as the tests themselves. The preparation process for the high school entrance test in Türkiye takes at least nine months, a period full of uncertainty for the students. This study investigates the anxiety felt during the process of preparation for the high school entrance exam by focusing on students’ anxiety levels, coping strategies and related variables during their preparation through a transactional perspective. Three research questions were launched. First, gender differences were examined. Second, the change during the preparation process was investigated. Third, a theoretical transactional model was tested. The sample of the research is composed of 351 eight graders. The students attending a test preparation institute were assessed during their training for the high school entrance exam. Data were collected on personal variables, measures of appraisal, anxiety, coping, and outcome, which are the components of a test anxiety model (Zeidner, 1998). For personal variables “trait anxiety” and “perceived efficiency of the study skills” were taken. Appraisal was operationalized as “perceived importance given to the exam” and “achievement expectancy”. The anxiety specific to the preparation period was coined as “preparation anxiety”. Coping was conceptualised and measured as “coping with pre-exam anxiety and uncertainty”. The outcome was the score on the actual high school entrance test. The results indicated that preparation anxiety was a different construct from test anxiety. Gender differences were observed in trait anxiety, achievement expectancy, preparation anxiety, and on two strategies of coping. Males and females showed a similar performance on the test although they seemed to experience the preparation process differently. For the second research question, it was found that the preparation anxiety diminished as the exam date drew near. Finally, the empirical findings fit the theoretical model of test anxiety, including the personal, appraisal, anxiety, coping and outcome variables. Eight of the nine variables entered in the model with the proposed order were accepted, only avoidance coping was left out and achievement expectancy had a direct relationship with performance which did not exist in the theoretical model. The coping strategies, as in the theoretical model were shown to be a mediator between anxiety and outcome.