Abstract

University access examinations in Catalonia, Spain have been recognized as some of the most important tests for students. This importance automatically converts them into a significant source of stress, which can influence the students’ performance during these examinations. This paper aims to describe and analyze this examination stress in Baccalaureate students through semi-structured interviews with 50 students, 17–18 years old, in their final year of public school in Catalonia. The results of this research show that stress is expressed in different ways and with different intensities from one student to another. Four features of examination stress were identified that can facilitate its understanding and explanation: the time factor of the students’ stress, subject specific examination stress, stress coming from the students’ social context and stress experienced in order to avoid failure.