Exploring Strategies Used by IISMA Awardees to Manage Academic Anxiety (A Case Study at Padua University)

The number of students expressing interest in joining the IISMA(Indonesian International Students Mobility Awards) program has been on asteady upward trajectory in recent years. One of the challenges that awardees mayencounter while pursuing their studies abroad is academic anxiety. Accordingly,the objective of this study is to examine the strategies employed by awardees whohave effectively managed their academic anxiety. This research uses qualitativemethods, as evidenced by semi-structured interviews from the five samples. Thefindings indicate that the five subjects who constituted the research sample wereable to overcome their academic anxiety in three domains: class-related anxiety,learning-related anxiety, and test anxiety. These factors are based on stronginternal capabilities, namely self-efficacy and self-regulation, which facilitate thecompletion of tasks. These capabilities include the ability to set targets, motivateoneself, persevere, manage oneself, take care of oneself, select a suitablesurrounding environment, and ultimately, complete the task. External factors thatplay a role include differences in class atmosphere, teaching methods employedby lecturers, the completeness of learning materials, and support from friends. Anovel finding in this study is that not all students with a high level of academicanxiety are unable to succeed in the academic field. Success can be achieved byinteracting with classmates and lecturers, utilizing the internet for self-study,taking notes using Google Docs, making a list of activities for the day, taking trialclasses, studying in groups, and taking a vacation to Rome to see the city and itscuisine before preparing for the exam. However, in this study, the efforts orstrategies used are only limited to subjects 1-5, which is a limitation in this study.