Test Anxiety amongst Students of Paramedical Courses: A Hypnotherapeutic Intervention study

Abstract

Academic pressure and test anxiety are among the major sources of stress genic, behavioral and other problems among students in India. Academic pressure and test anxiety has been on the rise due to the cut throat competition and the students are unable to cope with the extremely demanding nature of academic programs. Besides the added pressure from their parents and teachers to perform well further aggravate the pressure. The present study was intended to test the effectiveness of hypnotherapeutic intervention program on academic pressure and test anxiety amongst the students. A sample of sixty students from paramedical courses like, physiotherapy, pharmacy, and nursing were selected for the study out of the seven hundred students from the first phase of the study. These were selected on the basis of their scores on test anxiety. Seventy participants scoring very high on test anxiety were selected. These were equally divided in two groups i.e. one which was given hypnotherapeutic intervention and the other was taken as control. Ten sessions of specially designed module of hypnotherapy was given as intervention. The test anxiety was measured both before and after the intervention. In case of control group no intervention was given and they were just given free time. The data were analyzed using t test besides descriptive statistics. The results of the study revealed that hypnotherapeutic intervention was effective in reducing the test anxiety among the students of paramedical courses. Findings are discussed in the light of their implications.