Social Media Use and Test Anxiety: Exploring the Relationship

The study focused on the relationship between social media usage and test anxiety. It investigated how specific uses of social media are associated with test anxiety. The study classified the uses of social media into four dimensions and explored the relationship between each of the four dimensions and test anxiety. The study also explored the test anxiety levels of students before, during, and after the test. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. This survey used a Test Anxiety and Social Networking Questionnaire to collect data from 106 College of Education students sampled using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using scatter plots, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient, mean scores, and independent samples T-test. It was found that the respondents’ test anxiety was generally high and it progressively increased from before to after the test. There was a strong positive correlation between test anxiety during and after the test. This finding suggests that if the students are well prepared for a test and can answer questions to their satisfaction, their anxiety during the test will be low and this will, in turn, reduce their anxiety after the test. The study also found that excessive use of social media networking sites essentially increases test anxiety during and after the test. This implies that students can reduce test anxiety by using social media networking in moderation and focusing on their academic work.