Exam anxiety and its relationship with demographic factors among new students in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Exam anxiety as a common phenomenon is one of the problems of educational systems that affect academic performance. This study was performed to determine exam anxiety and its relationship with demographic factors among new students in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive- analytical study, 310 new students of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences were selected by random sampling in 2013 academic year. Data were collected via a two-component questionnaire including demographic information and Sarson scale. Exam anxiety score range was 0-37 in the questionnaire. Data were analyzed by statistical tests such as Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, Kruscall Wallis and Spearman correlation by SPSS 15. Results: The results showed that the mean score for exam anxiety was 13.65±6.06. Exam anxiety for 47.8% of the students was low, for 40.3% of them was moderate and 11.9% of the students suffer severely from exam anxiety. Results showed that level of exam anxiety was significantly correlated with sex and age. But there was not a significant relationship between level of exam anxiety score marital status, field of study, job, parents’ education. Conclusion: Considering, level of test anxiety was high & moderate in this research, and it has negative effects on academic performance, effectively planning and psychological interventions is suggested.