Major Factors Causing Examination Anxiety in Undergraduate Dental Students - A Questionnaire Based Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: To assess examination related anxiety among undergraduate dental students, and to determine the factors contributing to exam anxiety among them. Methods: 237 dental graduates participated in this questionnaire based cross-sectional study. The data regarding the factors contributing to exam anxiety were collected using a questionnaire that consisted of 15 questions on a 3-point Likert scale. The questionnaire was uploaded to “Google Docs” as a survey and disseminated to participants through “Whatsapp”. Frequency and percentage were applied for data description. Chi-square (C2) test was applied to test the association between two categorical variables. p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Of these, 200 participants completed the study. Male participants were 103 (51.5%) while female participants were 97 (48.5%). Most participants (n=140, 70%) had excessive course load. The majority of participants experienced fear of failure during the exam (n=127, 63.5%). More than half of the participants the sample had distractions during their studies (n=109, 54.5%). The existence of distractions during studies and finding dental vocabulary difficult were found to be statistically significant according to gender (p- values = 0.04 and 0.01 respectively). Conclusion: The study showed a prevalence of exam anxiety among undergraduate dental students. The major factors causing examination anxiety were excessive course load, fear of failure during exam, and studying all night before exams.