RELATIONSHIP OF TEST ANXIETY WITH STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE MUHAMMAD SHABBIR ALI 1 & MUHAMMAD NAEEM MOHSIN 2 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Education, GC University Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Associate Professor, Department of Education, GC University Faisalabad, Pakistan ABSTRACT This research was conducted to explore the relationship of secondary and higher secondary school students’ test anxiety and their achievement in the subjects of science i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) was used to measure students’ test anxiety. Data was collected from a sample of 1,885 secondary school science students studying Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics at 10 th grade. Simple correlation (r) and standardized regression coefficients () were used to investigate the relationships between test anxiety and achievement in science. The results of the study indicated that test anxiety was significantly negative with total achievement scores of all the four science subjects. High test anxiety caused lower achievement scores. Similarly, the Test Anxiety had significant but negative relationship (p < 0.01) with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics achievement measure for simple correlation analysis. KEYWORDS: Test Anxiety, Achievement in Science, Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) INTRODUCTION Most students have to face different situations of anxiety during the examination. In the viewpoint of Sarason and Stoops (1978), there are negative and adverse effects of anxiety on the achievement of students during their examinations. Sometimes the students get lower achievement in the examinations. It doesn’t mean that they are less intelligent, perhaps it happens due to the test anxiety. Einat (2000) has explained that highly-test anxious students are often worried due to test situation. They are always in the situation of thinking negative thoughts and consequently their achievement becomes lower. Zeidner (1998) has expressed that “there are many factors like cognitive, affective, motivational, somatic and environmental factors, along with test anxiety, which affect students’ achievement” (p. 235). Woolfolk (2004) has described that: “Test anxiety has interference on three points: focusing attention, learning, and testing. The students have to pay attention while they are learning new material. Highly anxious students divert their attention between this new material and tension. As a result, the achievement of anxious students becomes lower” (p. 366). In the view point of Kaya (2004), The major factor which has influence on achievement in science is test anxiety. This factor has created interest in science educators, counselors, psychologists and researchers. Test anxiety has influenced the students and peoples in each and every field of life. Many research studies are present which indicate the effects of test anxiety on achievement in science (Nicholson, 2010; Peleg, 2009; Putwain, 2008 a; Putwain, 2008 b; Chapell, Blanding, Silverstein, Takahashi, Newman, Gubi, & McCann, 2005; Kaya, 2004; McDonald, 2001; Hancock, 2001; Xin, 1999; Hong, 1999). In order to improve students’ achievement in science, a thorough understanding of factor of test anxiety International Journal of Educational Science and Research (IJESR) ISSN 2249-6947 Vol. 3, Issue 1, Mar 2013, 99-106 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.