Oral but not written test anxiety is related to social anxiety.

Aim: To examine the associations of test anxiety (TA) in written vs oral exam situations with social anxiety (SA).

Methods: A convenience sample of 204 students was recruited at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden, Germany) and contacted via e-mail asking to complete a cross-sectional online survey based on established questionnaires. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the TU Dresden. Full data of n = 96 students were available for dependent t-tests and correlation analyses on the associations of SA and TA respectively with trigger events, cognitions, safety behaviors, physical symptoms and depersonalization. Analyses were run using SPSS.

Results: Levels of TA were higher for fear in oral exams than for fear in written exams (M = 48.1, SD = 11.5 vs M = 43.7, SD = 10.1 P < 0.001). Oral TA and SA were positively correlated (Spearman's r = 0.343, P < 0.001; Pearson's r = 0.38, P < 0.001) contrasting written TA and SA (Spearman's r = 0.17, P > 0.05; Pearson's r = 0.223, P > 0.05). Compared to written TA, trigger events were more often reported for oral TA (18.2% vs 30.3%, P = 0.007); which was also accompanied more often by test-anxious cognitions (7.9% vs 8.5%, P = 0.001), safety behavior (8.9% vs 10.3%, P < 0.001) and physical symptoms (for all, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Written, but not oral TA emerged being unrelated to SA and may rather not be considered as a typical facet of SA disorder.