The relationship between 8th grade secondary school students' metacognitive skills and exam anxiety levels and their attitudes towards mathematics

The study, conducted to examine the relationship between 8th-grade middle school students' metacognitive skills and test anxiety levels and their attitudes toward mathematics, employed the correlational survey method, a quantitative research method. The population of the study consisted of 650 8th-grade students attending a public school in the Etimesgut district of Ankara during the 2023-2024 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 200 students selected from the population using simple random sampling. In the study, a personal information form was used as data collection tools; the 13-item "Cognitive Strategy Use Scale" in the "Self-Regulatory Learning Strategies" dimension of the "Motivational Strategies for Learning Scale" developed by Pintrinch and De Groot (1990) and adapted into Turkish by Üredi (2005); the "Ayda Exam Anxiety Scale" developed by Başol (2017); and the "Attitude Towards Mathematics Scale" developed by Kabaca (2006). Statistical data analysis program was used in the analysis of the research data, and the significance level between the dependent and independent variables was taken as (p) = 0.05. The study found that students' metacognitive skills, test anxiety, and math anxiety levels were influenced by gender, age, maternal education, attending preschool, attending private tutoring centers, taking outside-school classes, receiving family support in their studies, having a daily and weekly lesson plan, and having a daily and weekly problem-solving goal. The study concluded that students' metacognitive skills, test anxiety, and attitudes toward math were moderate, that metacognitive skills positively influenced students' attitudes toward math, while test anxiety negatively influenced them, and that metacognitive skills and test anxiety significantly predicted attitudes toward math.