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University of Illinois, USA, conducted a study proving that getting ‘likes’ and supportive comments from Facebook friends can help in reducing and fighting anxiety before exams. The researchers stated that undergraduate students who read encouraging comments and messages from their friends and close ones on Facebook prior to the exam can reduce their anxiety up to 21%.
The students who participated in the research programme found were made to write a seven-minute expressive passage. These students performed relatively better on a set of computer programming exercises than the students with low anxiety levels.
According to the research initiative, close to 41% students undergo anxiety problems before exams. This often results in bad test scores and poor performance. This also impacts the memory and problem-solving skills of the student.
The study also concluded that anxiety levels are quite high if the student has to answer open-ended problems in a test. While answering such problems, students are required to write and run codes.
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Performance is enhanced exponentially if the anxiety is reduced. The study also proved that students with high anxiety levels also dread negative evaluation. Such students also face concentration problems while giving the exam.
Most of the students who participated in the research were from computer engineering branch or were computer science majors. These students were asked to solve two programming problems as part of the study. These two problems included writing and running codes.
Their anxiety level was measured by the researchers through the Cognitive Test Anxiety scale. The students were also asked to complete two questionnaires to measure their stress level before the test.
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A day before the experiment, students were sent messages, comments and Facebook likes in order to encourage them for the programming test. It was observed that the students who received supportive comments and likes showed a drop in their anxiety level and performed well in the test.
