EFFECT OF TEST ANXIETY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGE OF EDUCATION STUDENTS IN N ASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

This paper focused on the assessment of test anxiety among students of Nasarawa State College of Education academic performance as an area of study. The research employed descriptive survey research design as appropriate for this study. Th,e population of the study consisted of 8,124 second year students of Colleges of Education in Nasarawa State. The sample for the study consisted 812 second year students. Simple random sampling technique was adoptedfor sampling the students. The researchers developed Statistics Anxiety Instrument (SAl) consisting of 30 items that reveal traits of test anxiety that students exhibit before, during and after a test. The instrument yielded 0.79 as index ofl ogical validity through experts’ appraisaland 0.84 as index of internal consistency through the Cronbach Alpha method of computing reliability. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize data related to the research questions, t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found out that during statistics test, students mostly get so nervous that they forget facts that they know while thinking about the grades they may get interferes with their study and achievement in statistics examination. The study recommended that lecturers should employ different teaching methods that students-centered and techniques such as frequent testing, assignments, and projects after teaching a topic to reduce student test anxiety especially when a test is announced.Lecturers should also announce every test and give students enough time to prepare both physically and mentally.