Examination stress among students of all cadres is a reality that examination administering bodies have had to deal with over the years. This study reviewed existing literature and concluded that all manner of examinations, whether they be written continuous assessment tests, practicals, attachments, term papers, or end semester examinations, cause reasonable stress to students before, during, and after the examinations. From the reviewed literature, the study found that most students used effective or positive coping strategies to deal with exam stress.
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Sasikumar and Bapitha, (2019) classify examination stress as a psychological condition that hinders students’ expressions an communication skills. According to the study, exam stress is more prominent in the days leading to the actual examinations when revision is intense. Various researchers have suggested various causes of examination stress. Among them, Kumari and Jain (2014) assert that lifestyle issues, lack of adequate information about the exam, such as venue and date, extreme pressure from high competition from classmates and a one size fits all kind of examination system are the major causes of stress among students. According to Eweniyi (2009), another cadre of students who experience a lot of stress are those who must keep up good grades so that they secure the scholarship opportunities they have. Such students experience exam stress because they are afraid of losing their scholarships should they fail to attain the expected grade.
Exam stress does not always have negative effects. Anbalagan (2013) opines that nervous tension in an acceptable level is good and helps students do their best in examinations. The study seems to suggest that when stress levels are within acceptable limits, students are able to prepare well for their exams which leads to improved performance. However, when the levels are excess, students are likely to panic, their thoughts are blocked hence hindering objective revision and leading to poor performance. When the students experience stress at a moderate level, Kumari and Jain (2014) interprete this as a show of concern and care by the students towards the result they will get. However, Ocansey and Gyimah (2015) dispute this and in their research reveal that no test anxiety symptom can push students into good performance. According to their study, stress symptoms had no positive impact on students’ performance especially when students encountered an impromtu test. Rather, they only served to increase stress and anxiety during the test and weakening of the performance.
Research has proved that various factors contribute to exam stress. Lee and Larson (2000) and Lou and Chi (2000) associate examinations stress with students’ response to environmental stressors, their state of psychosocial cognition and their ability to physiologically and psychologically cope with exam stressors in the exam room. Drawing insight from this, various researches in tandem with this opinion directly link trauma suffered later on in life with stress suffered in examination days. However, there is little research on examination stress and its effect during the exam period (Luckmizankari, 2017). However, it should be recognized that cheating and hysterical attacks during exams is a result of examination stress.