Education is the activity that aids new generations obtain the necessary information, ability, attitude and understanding and develop their character while preparing them for communal life. Teaching, on the other hand, is the process in which the individual develops talents in proportion to their capacity. The most important factor in education and teaching activities is the teacher. A teacher, in the most general terms, is a person working in educational institutes who enables students to reach cognitive, sensory and behavioural aim and gains within the range determined by the educational system (Gundogdu, Silman, 2007: 259). In our day a modern teacher surpasses this definition as well. The teacher has gone beyond just teaching class, giving lectures, making exams and giving grades; the teacher also takes on the roles of organizing, managing, counselling, observing and evaluating. The teacher also has an important role in influencing the society, creating a sound foundation towards the future of society and ensuring the continuation of such actions.

Understanding Anxiety and Phobia

Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which students experience extreme distress and anxiety in testing situations. While many students experience some degree of stress and anxiety before and during exams, test anxiety can actually impair learning and hurt test performance. Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety. In situations where the pressure is on and a good performance count, students can become so anxious that they are actually unable to do their best.

An extreme fear of examination is both an Anxiety and Phobia because literature shows both terms to express students’ extreme fear of examination (Maryam, Dahar, & Yousuf, 2015). Basically, test anxiety is the personality disposition that comes from cognitive and personality characteristics of the students Akbari, Bakht, Khaledi, Bajvar, &Hovayzaee, (2012). The cognitive element of test anxiety is associated with mental and thinking process of students (i.e., consequences of anxiety such as, irrational and intrusive thought before and during examination). While different variables related to personality traits also predict test anxiety among students Furthermore, it is admitted fact that environment and situational variables also influence human feelings and thinking. It also plays a vital role in shaping person ‘s attitude towards other and also about him/herself. Moreover, a person develops the complex feelings of inner-self by interacting with others (i.e., parents, siblings, teachers, and with peer group). From the above perspective of the development of self, person’s self-concept refers to one’s perception about him/herself (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2007).

Fear on Examination

In the educational process, although the role of examination is of great importance, some students suffer from fear of examination. More than 50 percent of students suffer from examination phobia. It does not matter whether the student is intelligent or not. They all are worried about forgetting while appearing in an examination. The author further stated that examination phobia is a major problem for a large number of students. For them examination is something which is almost inevitable. (Davis, 2005 Examination anxiety is a major factor contributing to a variety of negative outcomes including psychological distress, academic underachievement, academic failure, and insecurity.

Students in large number, who expect or experience shame, discouragement, stress and anxiety from the public due to the failures in their examinations make an attempt to commit suicide or commit suicide. They feel that they have lost everything in life. They do not have good counselling either at home, school or in the society. They do not have any option other than self-molestation. They lose their emotional stability and courage and run away from their village or do not have valour to face hardships from home or society. Some students even become dropout due to the fear of examinations. They take decision in their mind that they are incapable for studying. They do not want to hear anyone’s criticism or advice.

Need and significance

Some students become so frightened that they cannot perform well in the examination, even they forget the answers of the questions as they enter in the examination hall (Stellar, 2009). Almost all the students worry about forgetting in an exam, not being able to recall essential information during solving paper. And these fears become obstacles in their performance, especially during exam days. Teachers should help the students find out their own areas of deficiencies. Self-assessment helps to locate the area which needs improvement. During exam the students should eat properly and take sound sleeps at night.

Exam Phobia

Exam Phobia refers to the subjective experience of intense physiological, cognitive and or behavioral symptoms of phobia before or during test-taking situations that interferes with test performance. Intelligent and hardworking students have fear, anger and frustration in their hearts against the teachers having shallow knowledge and cheater students who had never bothered their studies and those who did not attend the classes, but by cheating and influencing on so called educationist, will get better marks than them (Chennai & Ram, 2002).

Causes for Exam Phobia

Examination phobia is created lot of pressure on students’ academic performance. Its excess pressure from the parent’s group, unprepared for the examination. Teacher’s pressure, Tough Competition. Some students become so frightened that they cannot perform well in the examination, even they forget the answers of the questions as they enter in the examination hall (Stellar, 2009). Anxiety disorders are prevalent in the students and can have a destructive influence on students’ lives.

Fear of Board Exam

Inadequate preparations one of the reasons of fear board exam. Irrational and fallacious believes. Some of the student’s minds are full of all strains of irrational and fallacious believes. Pressure contributes lots of fear into the student’s heart doing an examination. It could be pressure from parents, teachers, relatives. The fear of failing. Another reason why students fear exams is the fear of failing.

Role for student’s exam

Helping all students feel like a part of the school and educational community. Many students fear appearing in front of their classmates and relatives. Society can also help students develop successful test-taking strategies, an area where bright students of all cultural backgrounds can have difficulty to the detriment of their grades and self-esteem. Parents and teachers influence can make better development of student’s board exam.

Objectives of the study

1. To find out the significant difference in the exam phobia of Plus two Students with regard to the back ground variables such as gender, locality, and type of school, parental educational qualification.
2. To find out the relationship between the Familial Influence and Exam Phobia of Plus Two Students.

Hypotheses

1. There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to
2. There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to locality.
3. There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to Type of School.
4. There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to Parental Educational qualification.
5. Correlation between the Exam Phobia and Familial Influence of plus Two Students.

Method

The selection of method is based on the nature of the problem and the kind of data necessary for its solution. The research design shows the research method to be used, how data will be collected and analyses and the details about the selection of particular method (Burnett, 2009). After analysing the characteristics of the study, the investigators adopted the survey method of research in the present study. The survey method gathered data from a relatively large number of cases at a particular time. It is concerned with the generalized statistics of the whole population or sample. In the present study, survey method has been used to collect data from the Kanyakumari district.

Population

The population of the present investigation comprises of the plus two students in Kanyakumari district. According to the present study, the size of the population comprised under the twelve higher secondary Schools in Kanyakumari Districts in the Academic year 2020 -2021.

Sample

A sample is a part of a large population which is actually observed. The performance of a sample is used to make an inference about the performance of the larger group (Gay & Airasian, 2008)

The investigators have employed Simple Random Sampling technique for selecting the sample. The investigator randomly selected 12 higher secondary Schools in Kanyakumari district. From each school’s 12^th Standard students both boys and girls were taken as sample representing the population.

Sample distribution was done on the basis of gender, locality, Type of school and parental educational qualification. The Sample consists of 1000 students. The sample size for this study consists of 381Males and 619 Females Plus Two Students which include of 12 higher secondary schools from Kanyakumari District.

Tools Used

The investigator used the following Self Constructed tools for the study.

1. Bella -Rex Scale on Exam Phobia of Plus Two students. (2021)
2. Bella -Rex Scale on Exam Phobia of Plus Two students. (2021)

Research Tools used

A tool is a data gathering device or procedure used for research investigation (Best & Kahn, 2005). Tools are used to collect relevant information of a research problem. They can be used for gathering both quantitative and qualitative data.

Statistical Techniques Used

In this study, the following statistical techniques were used. They are Mean, Standard, Deviation, T-Score-Test, ANOVA, Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

Different Levels of exam phobia

The table describes the different levels of exam phobia of plus two students. It reveals that in the total 1000 sample 16% (160) of the plus two students have low level of exam phobia,  62.9 % (629) of the plus two students’ have medium level of exam phobia and remaining 21.1%  (211) of the plus two students have high level of exam phobia.

Table 1. Different Levels of exam phobia

The table (1) shows that the percentage level of exam phobia is average.

Analysis of Exam Phobia of Plus Two Students

Hypotheses: 01

There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to gender.

Table 2. Exam phobia of plus two students with regard to gender

*Sig at 0.01 level

It is inferred from the above table (2) that the calculated ‘t’ value (4.914) is higher than the table ‘t’ value at 0.01 level of significant. This is evident from the p-value 0.000 (<0.05). So, the hypothesis is accepted and it is found that there is significant difference in the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to gender.

Hypotheses: 02

There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to locality.

Table 3. Exam phobia of plus two students with regard to locality

*Sig at 0.01 level

It is inferred from the above table (3) that the calculated ‘t’ value (13.242) is higher than the table ‘t’ value at 1% level of significant. This is evident from the p-value 0.000(<0.05). So, the hypothesis is accepted and it is found that there is significant difference in the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to locality.

Hypotheses: 03

There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to Type of School.

Table 4. Exam phobia of plus two students with regard to type of school

*Sig at 0.01 level

It is inferred from the above table (4) that the calculated ‘t’ value (17.455) is higher than the table ‘t’ value at 1% level of significant. This is evident from the p-value 0.000 (<0.05). So, the hypothesis is accepted and it is found that there is significant difference in the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to type of school.

Hypotheses: 04

There is a significant influence between the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to Parental Educational qualification.

Table 5. Exam phobia of plus two students with regard to parental educational qualification

*Not significant at 0.05 level

It is inferred from the above table (5) that the calculated ‘F’ value (0.240) is lower than the table ‘F’ value at 0.05% level of significant. This is evident from the p-value of 0.787 (>0.05). So, the hypothesis is rejected, and it is found that there is no significant difference in the exam phobia of plus two students with regard to parental educational qualification.

Correlation Analysis

Hypotheses: 05

There is significant relationship between the exam phobia         and familial influence of plus two students.

Table 6. Correlation between the Exam Phobia and Familial Influence of Plus Two Students

*Sig. at 0.01 level

It was found that the correlation between Exam Phobia and Familial Influence was statistically significant, r (0.558), N=1000, p = 0.000(p<0.01).

Findings

The major findings of the study are

1. The percentage level of Social Influence on Exam Phobia is average.
2. There is significant association of Social Influence with the Exam Phobia of plus two students with regard to gender.
3. There is significant association of Social Influence with the Exam Phobia of plus two students with regard to Locality.
4. There is significant association of Social Influence with the Exam Phobia of plus two students with regard to Types of school.
5. There is no significant association Social Influence with the Exam Phobia of plus two students with regard to Parental educational qualification.
6. The correlation between Social Influence and Exam Phobia, was statistically significant.

Recommendations

The findings of the study showed the exam phobia of plus two students and their family influence it would help to hold strengthen for the student’s life. Hence the researcher wishes to recommend.

They should learn their day-to-day lesson and for no reason, they should have postponed to the other day. They must develop confidence that they can do well in any sort of exams or tests. They must know one thing that it is not the matter of scoring low marks but mastering the subjects. They should hone presentation skill in a written form. They should learn to write with in the stipulated time frame so that they should involve in practice in writing test even at home. At the time of the examination when they do not find expected questions don’t lose the confidence. Moreover, they should not learn in such a way that the particular questions are expected ones. They should not concentrate on external disturbances by which they may lose their time correct numbering of question is very essential. They must be equipped with enough and more writing materials when they entire their exam halls. Reading the whole questions before beginning to write the examination must be avoided because, if anyone who does not know few answers in the question paper will be tensed and worried so that they will not be able to write properly even then if they know answers for the questions. Equal amount of time should be given to write the questions according to the marks and the words allotted to them. It is left to their option they can begin and end their examination with prayers.

Parents should accept their children. They should never and ever compare their children with other students or other children with regard to learning or scoring of marks. Parents should keep away all the familial affairs happening in between them. Parents should avoid discouraging words about their children. They should not develop negative thoughts in the mind of the children. They should nurture their children by nourishing nutritious food. Parents should teach their children good habits and moral stories. There should be proper communication among parents and their children with regard to relevant matters. Parents should be friendly with their children. They should not curse their children. They should not chide their children for obtaining low marks any subjects.

Teachers should have subject knowledge. They should not talk ill of a ward with other teachers. They should help the low scorers by all means in making them score high marks. They should teach their children by using relevant Instructional Aids for making complex concept an easy one. They should not hurt the feeling of their wards either in front of opposite gender or other students. They should correct their wards if they commit mistakes and shape their character in a good way. They should remove from their mind the fear of examination. They should make their wards prepare the examination as if a king sending the soldiers to the battle field. They should encourage every student and feed confidence in their minds. They should not show partiality among the students.

Conclusion

This study would encourage to the student’s appreciation of improving academic performance and overcome to their exam phobia. Peer pressure can be harmful and compelling. They feel that they have lost everything in life. They do not have good counselling either at home, school or in the society. Parents, teachers and peers to students are found to be the main sources of social influence on students towards their academic development. The study paves way to the society and students to change their activities according to their children’s exam. Parents, teachers and students with society   may try to improve their role and modify according to the need of the hour. This study mainly helps to the society   and teachers and society to lead their children’s to maintaining good habits and physical and cognitive and good learning environment in order to avoid exam phobia. This study realises to the societies taking efforts to their student’s when they faced their board exams   and role of social influence on the exam phobia of plus two students.