Being a recent first year college student, test anxiety and stress is something that has become very prominent in my life. Studying the relationship between anxiety with test results and how students perform academically is a research topic that can not only benefit me as a student now and in future years, but is also very applicable to other college students struggling to find ways to cope with anxiety or stress before major assignments and upcoming tests. Due to the fact that this topic is so relevant to me is the reason why I have developed such an interest in studying the relationship between these two ideas. Anxiety and test results affects me and my values because being a nursing major will soon mean having to apply to an upper division program based strictly on grade point average, and acceptance or rejection into this program will easily determine the likelihood of my future. Being an extremely competitive process, doing well in my courses has become my priority and studying the relationship between test anxiety and stress can increase my knowledge in these areas and help me to become a better student. I feel qualified to write about this topic because I have firsthand experience on the issue and have already started and plan to continue doing an immense amount of research on this problem and generate as much accurate information that I can regarding the relationships between test anxiety and stress.

My first article studies the relationship between facilitating and debilitating responses to test anxiety. It states that it is normal to have anxiety before a test, but how it is handled can be tested and measured on an Alpert-Haber (AAT+ and AAT-) scale. Students who use their anxiety to develop new and effective study habits are classified under AAT+, while those who procrastinate and do not study as well due to anxiety are placed under AAT-. Researchers Speilberger and Weitz took groups of freshman college students and tested them to see where they fell according to this scale. As predicted, it was discovered that students that place in the AAT+ category use their anxiety to jump on assignments early and study more effectively, while those who fall under the AAT- category are more test anxious and do not thrive as well academically. This article is credible because versus being bias it is clearly informative and shows evidence of actual test results from an experiment along with many citations listed at the end of the article as to where the information came from. When conducting the experiment, students were also picked at random and gender was random as well. This eliminates bias in the test results. Wittmaier is writing an article on the research of Speilberger and Weitz and lists the statistics and findings that were discovered, with no evidence of bias in the article. The only issue that was discovered when analyzing this research article was that it is dated in 1972. Being so outdated, this has potential to mean that the results are not as accurate due to the rapid and changing developments in technology in our society.

My second article argues that test anxiety is a negative aspect in testing atmospheres, and that is should be considered a "psychiatric disorder" among students. It states that students who have major test anxiety should be allowed to have special accommodations such as unlimited time when taking tests to assist them with their disability and help them perform better academically. Authors Jonas and Jessica Lang take two different studies and examine the results. The first study shows results of students who claim to be "test anxious" and places them in a normal, timed atmosphere along with all other students. The second places the "test anxious" students in a private room giving them unlimited amount of time. After viewing the results, it was proven that students who suffer from test anxiety were able to perform better academically after being given the accommodations they needed. No bias was discovered when reading the article because after performing the experiment, the claims that were made proved to be valid. There are many credible authors and sources listed at the end of the article and it was written in the year of 2010 so I know that it is updated and valid.  

My third article is written my Donna L. Mealey and Timothy R. Host, and studies the different methods of coping with test anxiety. These authors argue that annotating and doing certain test-preparation activities will reduce anxiety and help students perform better on their tests. They also say having effective study methods beforehand can help them feel more confident and distract them from anxiety when taking a test. Another thing stated within the article is that it increases the anxiety of a student whenever teachers try and an intimidate them and make them seem like the test will be impossible to take, so if teachers reduce doing this it might help students to perform better on the test. These authors are credible because everything stated in the article is supported by a quote from a well respected person that studies the field of anxiety, and they have very many credible sources at the end of the article. It was published in the year of 1992, which makes it slightly outdated but still a very credible source.

This research question is arguable because there are very many different opinions on ways to reduce anxiety before taking tests or completing major assignments. People can argue about different atmospheres or situations and how they enhance or reduce anxiety, and it can also be argued how anxiety affects test taking skills. Some might say that a little anxiety can help a student and cause them to perform better academically, while others can say that it only hurts the student. Among the sources I have found, I have discovered that Speilberger and Weitz agree with Jonas and Jessica Lang by saying that anxiety is a real disorder and depending on how you handle it can change the results of test performance. I found that Mealey and Host say versus studying the actual test results, coping with anxiety can be handled better if you take action BEFORE and exam and plan and study accordingly. These different perspectives of the sources do not really affect my own, but rather are giving me a clearer idea on the ways anxiety alters test performance. To alter my research question in the future I need to possibly find a more direct argument about test anxiety and performance on tests to create a better argument within my research.

