An analysis of the relationship between anxiety levels and exam performances of the candidate students entering the special ability exam for school of physical education and sports program

This research aims at analyzing the relationship between the state and trait anxiety levels and exam performances of the candidate students entering the special ability exam for School of Physical Education and Sports program in terms of some variables. The population of the research comprises 1060 candidates taking the special ability exam held by Inonu University School of Physical Education and Sports in 2009-2010 academical year. The sample of the research consists of 648 of these candidate students who volunteered to participate into the study. In order to measure the anxiety levels of the participants who are taking the exam, Spielberger?s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used. In the evaluation of the data obtained in this study, descriptive statistical methods were used for the independent variables in the first part of the instruments. Since variances were not homogeneous, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Whallis H Tests were used to determine whether participants? scores differed by independent variables. In terms of gender variable, it was found that female candidates were more anxious than male candidates, there was a significant difference between special ability exam scores (ÖYSP), female candidates were more successful than male candidates in terms of their scores at first stage, and no gender-related differences were observed between the scores at second stage. No significant difference was observed between candidates anxiety scores in terms of how many times the candidate has taken the exam, how long the candidate has been performing the sport branch, type of high school, 1st stage and 2nd stage sportive achievement scores. Moreover, a slight and positive correlation was found between state-trait anxiety scores and ÖYSP scores