A Study to Access the Exam Stress in Medical College and Various Stressors Contributing To Exam Stress

To evaluate exam anxiety in medical students and also to determine various factors contributing exam anxiety. The cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 at the Maharishi Markendeshwar Medical College and involved 110 medical students who were voluntary participants. 20 self rating questionnaire State anxiety scale (S scale) was used to measure anxiety and a pre-designed questionnaire asked the first year MBBS students about the various factors contributing to exam related stress. All data was coded and analysed using SPSS version 16 with a prior set alpha level of 0.05. In results of the 150 1 Prof. Medical Students who were given self administered questionnaires, 110 returned completed questionnaires. The mean age of students was 18.58 + 0.96. The pre-examination anxiety (57.2+ 11.74) was significantly higher than the baseline anxiety levels (28.32+ 5.61). By applying linear correlation analysis psychosocial factors were found to be strongly positively correlated with anxiety (r=0.511) followed by lifestyle(r =0.247) and academic factors (r=0.097). In conclusion the study indicated high levels of exam anxiety among the medical students, showing that there is a need for anxiety-reduction programmes in medical colleges.