The Views of Young People about an Intervention Programme Designed to Support Them with Exam Related Anxiety and Stress

Both preparing for and sitting exams can be extremely stressful for children and
young people. Whilst the research within the area of exam anxiety acknowledges
the detrimental impact that it can have on individuals, much of the research has
been completed with university students. Limited research has been carried out
with children and young people. In addition to this, there is also little research that
has been completed in order to understand which interventions are helpful in
reducing exam anxiety in young people. The systematic literature review
highlighted that much of the research employed quantitative techniques. This
means young people’s views and experiences of exam anxiety has largely been
unexplored. The EPS service in which the TEP currently works is a partially
traded service. Some of the schools that had bought a service level agreement
requested support for certain pupils that were experiencing exam anxiety. The
EPS service therefore delivered an intervention called ‘beating exam anxiety
together’ (further details of this intervention can be found within chapter 1). Seven
semi-structured interviews were carried out with GCSE students who took part in
the ‘beating exam anxiety together’ intervention. The purpose of the interviews
was to understand more about young people’s views on exam anxiety, and also
their experiences of the intervention in which they took part. The research
highlighted the possible detrimental impact of exam anxiety on young people in
terms of their mental health, and also how able they feel to prepare for their
exams. The results of the research interestingly showed that young people
experience high levels of pressure from school teachers and also their parents.
Furthermore, students reported that they didn't know how to revise. The results
revealed that young people feel that the way in which exams are spoken about
in schools is largely negative. As a result of this, the researcher suggested that it
may be helpful to shift the narrative around the way in which exams are currently
spoken about. In addition to this, the results indicate that the intervention was
largely helpful in improving young people’s well being and their ability to be able
to manage exam anxiety.