Navigating evaluative stress: Assessing metacognitive awareness, test anxiety, and achievement among secondary school students

Abstract

Test anxiety is often a problem that can impact students' academic work, and metacognitive awareness assists students in planning, monitoring, and assessing their learning processes. The present study was conducted to explore the levels of metacognitive awareness, test anxiety, and academic achievement of secondary school students in District Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. The research design used was a quantitative survey design, where a modified questionnaire was used to measure metacognitive awareness and test anxiety, and students’ examination scores were used as the academic achievement indicator. The results showed that students' metacognitive awareness was at a moderate level and students' test anxiety was moderate. Levels of achievement were generally satisfactory. There was no significant difference based on gender, school type and grade level in metacognitive awareness. Schools are encouraged to encourage metacognitive learning strategies and to offer specific interventions that will reduce test anxiety in secondary school students.