أثر قلق الامتحان في التحصيل الدراسي العام لدى طلبة الصف الثاني الثانوي في المدارس الحكومية في مدن نابلس، طولكرم، قلقيلية

purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between testanxiety and general academic achievement of the 12th graders at Nablus,Tulkarm, and Qalqilya governments'school . Research questions : As means of structuring the problem, the researcher sought the answers of the following questions : - 1- Were there differences in the level of test anxiety that can be attributed to sex, and major variables ? 2- Were there differences in the level of academic achievement Vis -a- Vis the level of test anxiety ? 3- Were there differences in the level of the test anxiety in Comparison to the level of academic achievement ? Methodology: Atest anxiety questionnaire was developed by the researcher to suit the Palestinian environment . The questionnaire was tested and was found to be both reliable and valid ; reliability was determined by administering (test) the questionnaire to a random sample of 12th grade students. The instrument was readministered (retest) to the same sample two weeks later, and coefficient of reliability between the scores (,85) was computed . Moreover, the questionnaire was checked for validity by a group of experts on the subject. The researcher selected a stratified random sample of the 12th graders . The sample of the study included 208 men and women students: 102 males and 106 Females. Of these 110 were in the literary stream while 98 were in the scientific stream. The population of the study consisted of 1907 students of both sexes. The questionnaire was distributed among the study sample two weeks before the high school education examination of 1993/94 . The students were divided , according to their grades in the questionnaire, into three categories : high test anxiety, medium test anxiety, and low test anxiety. Each item in the questionnaire consisted of five choices ranging from always to never following the Likert scale. The choices were given weights ranging from 1-5 respectively . After this process, the researcher got the results of the general high school education examination from the school principals . The GPA of the subjects for every student was calculated. The students were then divided according to their grades into three categories : high achievement, medium achievement, and low achievement. To analyze the data, Pearson correlation, t.test, two - way analysis of variance, Schaffer test, have been used. Findings: The researcher reached the following results : 1- There was a negative correlation between test anxiety and achievement, the value of which was - ,245. 2- There was statistically significant differences in level of test anxiety attributed to gender (male and female) to the interest of females. 3- There were not statistically significant differences in level of test anxiety attributed to academic major (literary or scientific streams). 4- There were statistically significant differences in achievement attributed to sex and that was in favor of Females . No statistically significant differences in achievement were found attributed to test anxiety . But an interaction was found between sex and test anxiety. 5- In the scientific stream, there were significant differences in achievement attributed to sex that was in favor of Females .No statistically significant differences, in achievement, were found attributed to test anxiety . But there was an interaction between sex and test anxiety. 6- In the literary stream, there were significant differences in achievement attributed to sex that was in favor of females. Significant differences in achievement, attributed to test anxiety, were found and were to the interest of students of low test anxiety . An interaction between sex and test anxiety was found. 7- There were significant differences in test anxiety attributed to sex that was in favor of females . There were also significant differences in level of test anxiety attributed to level achievement and they were to the interest of students of low level academic achievement. There was also an interaction between sex and achievement in terms of their impact on test anxiety. 8- There were statistically significant differences in achievement among (scientific) high anxiety and (literary) high anxiety students to the interest of literary high anxiety students. Recommendations:- The researcher recommends the following: 1. Creating comfortable circumstances during exam period which will work to alleviate the degree of confusion and test anxiety which many students suffer from . 2. Bringing about a kind of cooperation between school and home for the sake of providing appropriate circumstances to enable the students get better achievement and to avoid all influences that hinder achievement. 3. Working toward providing psychologists and educators in schools to help students to solve their emotional problems that affect their academic achievement. 4. Schools have to show interest in extracurricular and recreational activities for the sake of students in order to create a free environment for dialogue and discussion . This will have positive effects on them and will help in decreasing their tension and anxiety . 5. Teachers have to get training in educational psychology in order to help students reduce the feelings of test anxiety. Teachers have to identify causes of test anxiety whether pertinent to family or school. They have also to give advice and counseling . 6. Families have to keep good relations and emotional warmth in the family milieu , and consider students' mental abilities in terms of not asking more than what is beyond their ability . Families have to respect students' interests and desires that help to get rid of feeling of test anxiety. All this would lead to improve level of achievement . 7. There is a need for more studies and research to reveal the impact of other variables on level of test anxiety.