Relationship between academic achievement and examination anxiety in high school students and pastoral counseling and guidance

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pastoral counseling and guidance and students' academic achievement levels. In the research, experimental design with pre-test and post-test control group was used. The experimental group and the control group of the study consisted of 20 students who were chosen by neutral assignment among the students who accepted to participate voluntarily in the study, which is high school education in Uşak. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale (WTAS) was used as data collection tool. This scale was developed by Driscoll in 2007. The Turkish version of the scale and reliability studies were conducted by Totan and Yavuz (2009). As a result of the study conducted by Totan and Yavuz (2009), the scale was evaluated as a validity and reliability coefficient in measuring the anxiety level of students. After the Westside Test Anxiety Scale (WTAS) was applied as a pre-test, pastoral counseling and guidance consisting of 9 structured sessions were conducted. Last test was applied in the last session. T test was used to determine whether the test and control group scores differed significantly from the test anxiety scale pre-tests and post-tests. As a result of the research, it was seen that there was a negative relationship between pastoral counseling and guidance and exam anxiety of students and a positive relationship between academic achievement.