Why Did Students Report Lower Test Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

Test anxiety is a common experience shared by college students and is typically investigated in the context of traditional, face-to-face courses. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of universities, and many students had to rapidly shift to and balance the challenges of online learning. We investigated how the shift to online learning during the pandemic impacted trait (habitual) and state (momentary) test anxiety and whether there was variation across different demographic groups already vulnerable to performance gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Quantitative analyses revealed that trait and state test anxiety were lower in Spring 2020 (COVID semester) than in Spring 2019 and were higher overall in women than men. We did not find a difference in either trait or state anxiety in first-generation students or among persons excluded because of ethnicity or race. Qualitative analyses revealed that student priorities shifted away from coursework during Spring 2020. While students initially perceived the shift to online learning as beneficial, 1 month after the shift, students reported more difficulties studying and completing their coursework. Taken together, these results are the first to compare reports of test anxiety during a traditional, undisrupted semester to the semester where COVID-19 forced a sudden transition online.

Keywords: academic competence; academic performance; challenges; competing priorities; digital natives; formative assessments; high-quality feedback; motivation; online learning.

FIG 1

Student test anxiety (Z-scores) grouped by binary gender collected over a traditional face-to-face semester (Spring 2019) and a semester interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Spring 2020). (A) Test anxiety information collected at the end of the semester (trait test anxiety), controlling for presemester reports. (B) Test anxiety information collected immediately after two exams (state test anxiety).

FIG 2

Impact of COVID-19 on student study habits. Students were asked to respond to the following prompt: “to what extent did the Coronavirus disease impact your study habits?” Student responses are ordered by frequency of student reporting.