Features of psychological readiness to the Unified State Exam in high school students

The article discusses the problems of psychological readiness to the Unified State Exam in high school students. It is noted that when preparing for exams, teachers and high school students often face a lack of psychological readiness, which can be manifested in both cognitive and personal difficulties. Describing the features of psychological readiness to the Unified State Exam will make it possible to correct the process of psychological supervision of high school students. Aim: The paper aims to identify the features of psychological readiness to the Unified State Exam in high school students. Materials and methods: The study was conducted from January to March 2020 and involved 96 students of 10th grade. The following methods were used for the purpose of the study: conversation method, questionnaire method (1 - Readiness to the Unified State Exam by M.Yu. Chibisova, 2 - author’s standardized questionnaire, 3 - Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory modified by A. Andreeva, 4 - 16-PF by R. Cattell). Mathematical and statistical processing was performed by using descriptive statistics and the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance. The calculations were performed using the SPSS Statistics v. 22.0 software package. Results: It was shown that high school students perceived the Unified State Exam as a stressful situation that caused high emotional pressure. An analysis of psychological readiness to the exam showed that the graduates had the most developed process component, while the personal and cognitive components of readiness were formed at a medium or low level. It was found that the majority of high school students had a medium and low level of psychological readiness to the exam, that can be manifested in the following aspects: familiarity with the exam procedure, anxiety and difficulties with self-discipline and self-control. Conclusion: The authors substantiate the need to provide psychological supervision to high school students and emphasize the most important areas of psychological impact for the development of psychological readiness to the exam, namely exam-related goal setting, forming a constructive strategy for exam-related activities; developing a plan for preparing for the exam; overcoming negative emotional states.