Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between test-related anxiety and pharmacy students' performance in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Year-5 Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students enrolled at a public university in Saudi Arabia. Students completed Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), a 20-item validated questionnaire used to assess test-related anxiety, prior to the commencement of a summative OSCE. TAI has two subscales: TAI-Emotionality (TAI-E) and TAI-Worry (TAI-W). The overall maximum possible total score (TAI-T) is 80, with a minimum possible score of 20.
KEY FINDINGS: All 25 students, 10 males and 15 females completed the survey. The overall mean scores for TAI-E, TAI-W and TAI-T were 20.2, 19.6 and 50.2, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between males and females with respect to the TAI-E score (P = 0.43), TAI-W score (P = 0.25) and TAI-T score (P = 0.34). Females had higher marks in the OSCE compared with males (P = 0.01), however. After adjusting for gender, multiple linear regression analysis showed a statistically significant negative association between TAI-W score and marks obtained in OSCE (P = 0.02; 95% CI = -0.42, -0.03).
CONCLUSION: Assessment-related worry may negatively affect students' scores in performance-based examination and could lead to overall underperformance.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 191-194 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | International Journal of Pharmacy Practice |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 10 Aug 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- Academic Performance/psychology
- Anxiety
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Education, Pharmacy
- Educational Measurement
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Saudi Arabia
- Students, Pharmacy/psychology
- Surveys and Questionnaires