Study of Academic Anxiety and Academic Achievement Among Secondary School Students

The role of academic anxiety cannot be underestimated among the predictors of academic achievement. Anxiety is an excited state of nervous system as a result of which sense of tension, nervousness and worry is being inflicted on individual (Spielberger, 1983). In the modern time it is considered as a major predictor of academic performance (Mc Craty, 2007 and Mc Craty, et al., 2000). Reason being clear that world has become a place of great unnatural competition and academic achievements are seen as a bench mark of success in one's life. Sample of 340 secondary school students from various schools of Aligarh wereselected for the study. A standardised tool was used to collect the anxiety scores and CGPof the students in their previous classes, obtained from school records were taken as an index of their academic achievement. Later CGP was converted in to percentage marks. Present study is planned to find out difference as well as relationship in between the academic anxiety and academic achievement with respect to gender and religion respectively. Results of this study clearly revealed that, no significant difference is found in the academic anxiety and academic achievement of male and female students respectively. Similarly, no significant difference is found in the academic anxiety and academic achievement of muslim and non-muslim students respectively. Though, a significant and negative relationship is seen among the academic anxiety and the academic achievement. It is also inferred from the findings that a moderate level of anxiety is desired in order to excel in the academics, and when anxiety crosses the limit academic achievement decreases significantly.