ABSTRACT
The study was conceived with the major objective of investigating the Effectiveness of the Cognitive Restructuring and Systematic Desensitization techniques in the Control of HighStakes Test Anxiety among Final Year Secondary School Students in Kaduna Metropolis. It was also to ascertain which of the two techniques was more effective in controlling the problem. The study sample consisted of three hundred final year students consisting of males and females. It was a quasi-experimental study in which students were assigned to two experimental and two control groups. One of the experimental groups was treated with cognitive restructuring while the other was treated with systematic desensitization. Each of the treatments was carried out within eleven counselling sessions. Individual counselling method was adopted in the study. Each of the subjects was administered with pretest and posttest, using the Westside Test Anxiety Scale designed by Driscole (2004). Seven research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The first and second hypotheses were comparisons between pretest and posttest of the treatment groups to confirm the efficacy of the two counselling techniques. The third hypothesis confirmed that the cognitive restructuring technique was more effective than the systematic desensitization technique. The fourth and fifth hypotheses were comparisons between posttests of the treatment and control groups which further confirmed the efficacy of the counselling techniques. The sixth and seventh hypotheses also confirmed that cognitive restructuring and systematic desensitization were very effective in controlling poor cognition and emotionality of the students respectively. The t-test statistic was used in testing hypotheses 1 and 2, 4 and 5. The ANCOVA statistic was used in testing hypothesis 3, while the binary logistic model was used in testing hypotheses 6 and 7. All the seven hypotheses were rejected. After treatment, it was discovered that although the two techniques were effective, cognitive restructuring counselling technique was more effective than the systematic desensitization in controlling the disorder. Having discovered the effectiveness of the counselling techniques on high-stakes test anxiety, some major recommendations were forwarded. It was recommended that authorities in our educational systems should take it as a priority to train school counsellors in the use cognitive restructuring and systematic desensitization techniques with a view to helping the students with problems such as high-stakes test anxiety. Recommendations for further studies were also directed to students and scholars. The major causes of the high-stakes test anxiety may be investigated, larger population may be studied, or different techniques may be used to investigate their efficacy on high-stakes test anxiety control. Effectiveness of group counselling in reducing high-stakes test anxiety may also be studied.