CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The quality of education in Nigeria is a recurring public concern, and the weak performance of students in external examinations is one of the main reasons. Results in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) illustrate the problem. After the West African Examinations Council corrected a grading error in the 2025 results, 62.96% of candidates obtained credits in at least five subjects including English Language and Mathematics, compared with 72.12% in 2024 (WAEC, 2025, as reported in BusinessDay, 2025). Identifying the factors that affect students’ achievement is therefore a major aim of teachers and educational researchers. Achievement is shaped by many things, including environmental factors, teacher factors and psychological factors within the student, such as motivation, anxiety, adjustment and study skills.

Many students fail to master what they learn because they lack effective study habits or skills. Study skills are the strategies, methods and techniques that learners use to meet learning goals. They include locating, organising and remembering information, taking notes, managing time, summarising, outlining, self-questioning and reviewing, and structured methods such as SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review). Study skills are techniques that can be learned and applied across subjects. No single skill suits all students or all tasks, and the skills an individual uses depend on the person and the situation. Students with a good range of study skills are better placed to achieve well, while those who lack them may perform poorly.

Anxiety is part of normal human experience: a state of fearfulness, nervousness and unease about uncertain events. It can affect memory, concentration and behaviour, and its physical signs include raised heart rate, sweating and dryness of the mouth. Test anxiety, or examination anxiety, is the reaction students show to testing and evaluative situations. It has two main components, a cognitive component made up of worry, negative thoughts and lack of confidence in one’s ability, and an emotional component made up of physiological reactions such as tension, palpitations and nausea. A moderate level of anxiety before an important task can be motivating, whereas high anxiety is debilitating.

Two explanations are widely used for how test anxiety harms performance. The interference model holds that anxious students are distracted by task-irrelevant thoughts and worry during the test. The learning-deficit model holds that test anxiety originates in the preparation for the test, because students with poor study skills are less able to prepare and so become anxious (Onyeizugbo, 2010). The two models can work together. A large meta-analytic review of three decades of research found that test anxiety is negatively associated with academic performance (von der Embse et al., 2018).

Nigerian studies of university students point in the same direction. A study of 400 undergraduates at a university of education found a high negative correlation between test anxiety and academic performance, and found that the test anxiety of male and female students differed significantly (Toyobo, 2014). Among 249 third-year psychology students in a university in Eastern Nigeria, self-efficacy and trait anxiety were significant predictors of test anxiety, with students of lower self-efficacy more test-anxious, while gender was not a significant predictor (Onyeizugbo, 2010). A study of 440 distance-learning undergraduates found that social support protected against test anxiety, and examined the links between study skills, coping strategies, self-concept and test anxiety (Amini & Reamen, 2020). The findings on gender are therefore mixed, which makes it important to examine gender as a factor in test anxiety and achievement.

Achievement is the outcome of what a student has learned and is usually measured by examinations. It is a mark of success for students and teachers, and it is central to the realisation of educational objectives. Given that study skills, test anxiety and gender may all influence achievement, this study investigates their roles among students in tertiary institutions.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Much research on students’ achievement has looked at factors outside the student, such as the individual’s background, the school, teachers and teaching strategies, school climate and peers. Yet achievement remains low among many students in tertiary institutions. Psychological variables within the student, particularly study skills and anxiety, are important determinants of achievement, and there is evidence that high test anxiety is associated with lower performance (Toyobo, 2014; von der Embse et al., 2018). However, results on how gender relates to test anxiety are inconsistent (Onyeizugbo, 2010; Toyobo, 2014), and few studies have looked at study skills, test anxiety, gender and achievement together among students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The questions that underlie this study are therefore: What is the effect of examination anxiety on students’ academic achievement? What is the influence of study skills on their test anxiety and achievement? And does gender influence test anxiety and achievement?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to determine the effects of examination anxiety on the academic achievement of students in tertiary institutions, with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as the study setting. Specifically, the study seeks to:

1. determine the relationship between test anxiety and the academic achievement of students;
2. determine the influence of study skills on the test anxiety levels of students;
3. ascertain the influence of study skills on the academic achievement of students; and
4. ascertain the influence of gender on the test anxiety and academic achievement of students.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The findings should be theoretically significant, because the data may help educational psychologists to develop general theories of study-skills-related behaviour, anxiety and achievement. They should also be useful to teachers, students, curriculum planners and counsellors.

Teachers will see more clearly how study skills affect students’ test anxiety and achievement. Educational psychologists and counsellors can use the findings to design interventions, such as study-skills training and anxiety-reduction programmes, of the kind recommended by earlier Nigerian studies, which call for regular programmes to reduce test anxiety through university counselling centres (Toyobo, 2014). Students may realise how specific study skills influence their anxiety and achievement. Curriculum planners can consider study skills as a component of curriculum planning.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study is carried out at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, and is limited to students of the university. In terms of content, it is limited to the study skills adopted by the students, their influence on low and high levels of test anxiety and on achievement, the relationship between test anxiety and achievement, and the influence of gender on test anxiety and achievement.

1.6 Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. What is the relationship between test anxiety and students’ academic achievement?
2. What is the influence of study skills on students’ test anxiety levels?
3. What is the influence of study skills on students’ achievement in the university?
4. What is the influence of gender on students’ test anxiety levels and academic achievement?

1.7 Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested.

• Ho1: There is no significant relationship between test anxiety and the academic achievement of students in tertiary institutions.
• Ho2: There is no significant influence of study skills on the test anxiety levels of students in tertiary institutions.
• Ho3: There is no significant influence of study skills on the achievement of students in tertiary institutions.
• Ho4: The influence of gender on the test anxiety of students in tertiary institutions is not significant.
• Ho5: The influence of gender on the achievement of students in tertiary institutions is not significant.

References

Amini, C. M., & Reamen, J. N. (2020). Effects of psychological variables, coping strategies on test anxiety and academic performance of undergraduate distance learning students in the National Open University of Nigeria. Journal of Education in Developing Areas. https://odel-repository.nou.edu.ng/node/675

BusinessDay. (2025). WAEC review shows 63%, not 32%, obtained five credits or more in English and Maths [News report on West African Examinations Council 2025 WASSCE results]. https://businessday.ng/news/article/wassce-waec-review-shows-63-not-32-obtained-5-credits-or-more-in-english-math/

Onyeizugbo, E. U. (2010). Self-efficacy, gender and trait anxiety as moderators of test anxiety. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 8(1), 299–312. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2931/293121995014.pdf

Toyobo, O. M. (2014). Test anxiety as a factor in undergraduates’ academic performance at the Nigerian premier university of education. Journal of Capital Development in Behavioural Sciences, 2(1). https://journals.lcu.edu.ng/index.php/JCDBS/article/view/779

von der Embse, N., Jester, D., Roy, D., & Post, J. (2018). Test anxiety effects, predictors, and correlates: A 30-year meta-analytic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 227, 483–493.