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INTRODUCTION

“Quicksand is what it feels like… because the harder you struggle to escape, the
deeper you sink in.”

The American Psychological Association (APA) states that anxiety is an emotion


characterized by feelings of tension, worry, and physical changes. The levels of anxiety
attacks affect a person’s life by interference of the said attacks to their performance of
daily tasks. In the Philippines, one in five people suffer from a mental health problem.
About 17% - 20% of Filipino adults experience psychiatric disorders, while 10% - 15% of
Filipino children aged 5 to 15, suffer from mental health problems (Magtubo, 2016). The
researchers would like to know if the Filipino teenagers experience anxiety when taking
their examination, thus knowing the relation of test anxiety to the students’ academic
performance. Since the said study was conducted in random, the researchers would like
to get a more specific statistic mainly that of the Grade 12 students of San Beda College
Alabang.

Students with anxiety tend to display a passive attitude in their academic


performance such as the lack of interest in their studies, poor grades in quizzes,
examination periods, and or assignments. More physical signs include panicking, going
black during a test, being nervous, racing heartbeat, and many more (Ruffins, 2007).
These signs are often shrugged off and are called a sign of being lazy. However, the
researchers want to get the students’ insight to find out how serious these attacks really
are.

To experience anxiety whilst studying is said to be a major factor of academic


performance (McCraty, 2007) as this can possibly lead to damaging results. According
to McGraw-Hill Education, the said learning science company revealed that test anxiety
does have a negative impact on student performance (2016), and since there were no
studies found regarding a conducted study in the Philippine setting, the researchers
decided to manage a similar research.
Anxiety scrambles your brain and makes it hard to learn (Rix, J. 2015), which
means the students’ focus is at stake: decreasing their ability to memorize, reason, and
concentrate. The study of relationship between test anxiety and students’ academic
performance must be conducted from time to time to recognize growth or deterioration
of said attacks. Dr. Amanda Gamble, a psychiatrist at Macquiare University located in
Sydney states that “anxiety leads to poor academic performance & underachievement.”
To prove her statement, the present study will identify the correlation of students who
experience test anxiety and their academic performance.

Specifically, the study aims to determine the following research questions:

1. What is the level of anxiety of College students during the week of midterm exams?

2. What is the relationship of anxiety and the GWA of College Students of Mapua
University?

Students may benefit from the study as it may help give them a voice since it
aims to promote the seriousness of anxiety as an acceptable reason for school
establishments to put time and attention in handling such cases. In addition, the
teachers may be able to allot their attention to the students that need it most. Not only
does this promotes equity but also strengthens the need for teachers to inspire their
students to become the change that will shape the future. Parents may also benefit from
this study because it may give them the relief to the administration they entrusted their
children with. Moreover, school institutions and administration may benefit through the
study’s findings. It may give an overview of the emotional toll their students go through
during examination periods and entertain the concept of anxiety as a serious matter that
should be dealt with as soon as possible. Lastly, the future researchers will be able to
use this study as a reference for academic purposes.

This research aims to know if there is a correlation between an individual’s


severity of anxiety and their academic performance. The individuals chosen by the
researchers to participate in this particular study are 1 st year College students of Mapua
University in the school year of 2019 to 2020. In order to assess and use the emotion
anxiety as a quantifiable variable the research will use a standardized test used by
psychologist and therapists for measuring the severity of anxiety known as the Clinically
Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale or CUXOS (Zimmerman, Chelminski, Young &
Dalrymple, 2010). For the academic performance variable, the researchers will acquire
final grades only from specific subjects that the researchers consider to best show
academic performance. Due to schedule constraints the survey was conducted a week
after the exam. The student’s scores from their midterm of their first semester will be
used. Since not all subjects are common throughout all strands, the study will take at
least four subjects from each strand with some subjects that overlap each other such
that the respondents may enter their scores to the subjects they have. The subjects that
were chosen were ones that should relate to mathematics, science, logic, language or
literature and one that is related to their specific strand. The subjects chosen for the
College students have the subject codes Math 146 (Calculus 1) and CM011 (General
Chemistry). The estimated amount of respondents is at least 50 persons with complete
data of both midterm scores and CUXOS score. The research will be conducted within
the span of a term in a semester. If the respondent fails to complete either of the
requirements the data will be unusable.

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The present study applied a quantitative research design using a correlational


approach. Correlational study determines whether or not the two variables: (a) student’s
academic performance and (b) student’s test anxiety levels are correlated. The
researchers aims to see whether the two said variables are directly or indirectly
proportional to one another. For instance: if one variable has a connection to the other
variable as it increases or decreases.

Locale

The study was conducted at Mapua University Intramuros Campus. It is more


convenient to gather and acquire participants in this location. Moreover, the target
respondents are grade 12 students on this specific school. The respondents were
visited from room to room at the fourth floor of the said building. Lastly, the researchers
selected the place to conduct the study because it will give the researchers the
information they need from the students who experience test anxiety. The study will be
done on the first semester of school year 2018-2019.

Sampling

The first choice of sampling was cluster and systematic sampling. Wrote each
strand in College Level available at Mapua University and listed the sections in each
strand. After listing, every third section that would they will be chosen for our study.
Three sections are from the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Strand, two from Accountancy and Business Management Strand, and two from
Humanities and Social Science Strand. After their first run in conducting the survey, the
results was mostly from the Science Technology Engineering Mathematics track and
only a number of respondents know their Midterm Examinations Score in the available
subjects given to them. It was immediately altered to quota sampling. It was limited to
50 Mapua University students in all engineering courses.

Instrumentation

A questionnaire, standardized instrument checklist was used to conduct their


survey. A consent letter was prepared with the aid of their research instructor for each
of the participants. The content of the letter discusses the objectives of the research and
how their identity and data will be kept confidential. A reply slip telling the participants
that they are willing to partake in their study was to be pulled out of the paper one
finished. The contents of the survey form was a list of all the subjects from three strands
and was to be filled up which is applicable to them depending on their strand. The
CUXOS (Clinically Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale) is a general measure of mental and
psychic rather than a disorder specific scale. The content of the questionnaire was
borrowed from other rating scales such as the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety and
DSM-III-R and DSM-IV descriptions. The respondent is to rate the items on a 5-point
Likert scale.
Data Gathering Procedure

The instruments were prepared a month before the said schedule of conducting
the surveys itself. To ensure its effectiveness and content, the researchers sought for
peer validation among the other researchers. The researchers will conduct the survey
after the professor approved the study. The researcher will print 50 copies for the
survey in Mapua University. Surveys will be handed out to students who were
knowledgeable of their scores. Further explanations were given to the respondents to
reduce misunderstandings resulting to unusable inputs. Manual cleaning of data was
done after receiving the questionnaires handed by a representative who were tasked to
collect from each section. Soon after, the data was then inputted on excel. It will take 3
days for the researchers to complete and summarize the data.

Data Analysis

The variables of the research are interval and ratio values because the size or
nominal value of the variables has an order. Academic scores and CUXOS score values
mean differently depending on the magnitude of the value. However CUXOS scores
can have a value of zero which means the subject has no anxiety which makes this a
ratio variable. The raw data were inputted in a microsoft excel spreadsheet. To
normalize the Academic score data, they are converted into percentages.

To study the correlation of the variables, the two variables was illustrated in a
scatterplot. Using the scatterplot, the researchers can determine the trend of the
correlation. Using the excel features, a line was drawn automatically on the table that
shows the overall trend of the data. The data analysis technique used for the correlation
of interval/ratio is Pearson correlation. The Pearson product-moment correlation
coefficient also known as the Pearson correlation measures the strenght of the
association or relation between two variable denoted by “r”. This determines if the
relation of the two variables are significant and whether they are inversely or directly
related. A zero value of the coefficient indicates no correlation between Anxiety severity
and academic scores, a positive value means a direct correlation (both values increase
if one increases) while a negative value denoted an inverse correlation (one value
decreases as the other increases).

Research Ethics

Upon accomplishing the survey forms given, the researchers assured the participants
complete anonymity from the results of the study. All information used was for the sole
purpose of the present study. The CUXOS outcome scores remained confidential as
well as it was only be between the participants and the said researchers. Finally, the
first page of the given survey form stated the instructions, the significance of the
questionnaire, and an informed consent form; only those that have been signed was
used for the study.

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