Abstract
Anticipatory anxiety, the excessive worry directed at events that have not yet occurred, is a common experience among adolescents preparing for high-stakes university admission. In Indonesia the national entrance test admits fewer than three in ten registrants each year, making it a substantial source of psychological pressure. This study measured the level of anticipatory anxiety among secondary school students facing the UTBK-SNBT. Using a descriptive quantitative design, data were collected from 105 respondents drawn from twelve schools across Indonesia through an online questionnaire distributed between 3 March and 4 September 2025. The instrument comprised twelve four-point Likert items covering physiological, cognitive and behavioural dimensions. All twelve items proved valid, with item-total correlations between 0.476 and 0.777 against a critical value of 0.192, and the scale was reliable with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.882. Total scores spanned the full theoretical range of 12 to 48, with a mean of 28.26 and a standard deviation of 7.58. Most respondents (59.0%) fell into the moderate category, 29.5% into the low category and 11.4% into the high category. The cognitive dimension was the most prominent (M = 11.17 of 16) while the behavioural dimension was the least evident (M = 7.39 of 16), indicating that worry and negative expectation were not yet accompanied by avoidance of academic tasks. Respondents who answered prospectively and those who answered retrospectively did not differ significantly. The findings support school-based cognitive intervention and indicate that roughly one student in nine needs targeted psychological attention.