An Examination of the Relationships between Pre-service Teachers’ Test Anxiety, Use of Social Networking Sites, and Cumulative Grade Point Average

Abstract

This study aimed to determine situations or conditions that promote test anxiety, identify the frequent uses of social networking sites, and examine the relationship between social media use, test anxiety, and Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). A test anxiety and social networking questionnaire which consisted of 49 items was administered to randomly selected pre-service teachers in a college of education at the end of the second-semester examination. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 106 pre-service teachers. The data collected from the respondents was analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient, mean, and frequency. In this study, it was found that taking an unannounced examination, feeling one should have done better than he/she did after an examination, waiting to see the results of an examination published, discussing with the tutor the answer one believed to be right, however, that was marked wrong and reading through the examination questions and feeling that one does not know any of the answers promote test anxiety among the pre-service teachers. The pre-service teachers used social networking sites predominantly to read news, get information regarding current social events, conduct research, share new ideas, relieve academic stress, share pictures, and view funny videos. It was found that there is a significant positive moderate correlation between test anxiety and the use of social networking sites among pre-service teachers. It was also found that, statistically, there was no relationship between test anxiety and CGPA, and CGPA and use of social networking sites.