The Journal of Medical Education and Development

Introduction: Test -anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems among the students that can impair performance and leads to failure of the exam. So, this study aimed to determine the rate of exam-anxiety among Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences' students.

Methods: This cross sectional-analytic study was conducted on 510 students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences by convenience sampling method in 2014. In this study, data collection tool was Test-Anxiety questionnaire includes 25 questions. Data were analyzed with the Pearson correlation and t-test using SPSS 16 software.

Results: 198 students (38. 8%) had mild exam-anxiety, 140 students (27. 5%) moderate exam-anxiety and 172 students (33. 7%) had severe exam-anxiety. The difference between the mean of anxiety scores was significant at various fields of study (P <0. 05).  Midwifery students experienced more stress in comparison with the students of other fields. There was a significant relationship between exam anxiety level, and the variables of gender, location, age and total grades average of students (P<0/05). There was not a significant relationship between exam anxiety level and marital status, parental occupation, semester entrance and employment of students.

Conclusion: Due to the high level of exam anxiety among the different fields of medicine as well as the negative effect of this type of anxiety on academic performance of students, the necessity of the use of psychological services, counseling, identification of causes of anxiety, and planning for decreasing this problem was recommended. Obviously, in this regard, more attention should be paid to the highest-risk groups such as female midwifery students.