Pre-university students are secondary school leavers who are adapting to university life. Many reports suggested that new university students mostly lack self-regulation and this could negatively affect their academic performance and cause unnecessary stress. The purpose of this study is to find out the influence of self-regulation on pre-university students’ cognitive strategy, self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and test anxiety. Six research questions were developed for this study and a quantitative survey was conducted on 115 pre-university students from Pusat Asasi Universiti Teknologi MARA and INTEC Education College in Malaysia who went through a challenging secondary school experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The instrument used was divided into three sections with a total of 44 items which are demographic profile, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning strategies. From the findings, it was discovered that there are positive relationships between self-regulation and cognitive skills, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value but weak positive with test anxiety. Despite challenges faced during the pandemic, the students are found to be coping quite well during the endemic. Respondents have reported that they are motivated to learn and have applied self-regulation strategies but are a bit anxious about tests. To assist pre-university students in coping with the new study environment and demands, both lecturers and students need to understand and apply the knowledge on self-regulation strategies for students to better prepare for their tertiary education.
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