The effect of "Learning-through-exam method" on students' academic success, attitude and test anxiety in the teaching of probability and statistics learning domain at seventh grade mathematics course

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of "learning-through-exam method" on students' academic success, attitude and test anxiety in the teaching of probability and statistics learning domain at seventh grade mathematics course.This study was held on 60 students (30: experiment group, 30: control group) in Sumer Elementary School that is located in Malatya province. During the experimental procedure in the experiment group "learning through exam method" was applied, on the other side teaching process of control group was organized according to mathematics curriculum. Before the implementation of the course, teacher was informed about how to use "learning-through-exam method" effectively. mathematics achievement test on probability and statistics learning domain, attitude scale for mathematics course and mathematics test anxiety scale were applicated to both groups, before (as pretest) and after (as posttest) experimental procedure. Probability and Statistics Achievement Test was also used as retention test.One sample t-test, paired samples t-test, independent samples t-test, chi-square goodness-of- fit test, Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed rank test were carried out to analyze raw data. In addition to these scales, in the experiment group "evaluation scale for learning-through-exam method"was applicated. At the end of the implementation procedure, interviews about process were held with the students from experiment group. According to data, in terms of academic success, learning-through-exam method is more effective than the methods recommended in mathematics curriculum. On the other side, retention level of learned behavior is declining as time progress, and there is no statistically difference between groups. In terms of mathematics course attitude, experiment group's level was increased but control group's level was decreased statistically significant. This data can be transcribed as learning-through-exam method is more effective than existing teaching methods to increase mathematics course attitude.Similarly, mathematics test anxiety level of experiment group were different from control group. Control group's mathematics test anxiety level is higher than experiment group's anxiety level. This means that learning-through-exam method is more effective than existing teaching methods about decreasing mathematics test anxiety level of students'.Students from experiment group's opinion about learning-through-exam method is positive in generally. These students are willing to use this method for other subjects, too. The students think that they would be more successfull in case of using this method for learning process. In the light of the findings, learning-through-exam method can be used to increase students academic succes instead of existing teaching methods. Some methods that are effective to provide long time retention could be investigated and used with learning-through-exam method to support students' learning and retention level together. For the students that have high mathematics test anxiety, learning-through-exam method could be used to decrease this anxiety and increase attitude toward mathematics course. On the basis of students' opinions about using this method effectively, a few easy subjects could be taught via this method before more complex subjects. Using this method at the class with low behavioural problems would provide more benefit efficiency. The researchers attempts to investigate this method, would get more benefit by using this method for complex subjects, need to apply it easier subjects, firstly. Also, this method's efficiency could be examined for different academic-success level students. Keywords: Mathematics, learning-through-exam method, academic success, mathematics course attitude, mathematics test anxiety, probability and statistics learning domain