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.