Literature is reviewed in relation to test anxiety. A test is any measurement that yields quantitative data. Anxiety generally is a feeling of mingled dread and apprehension about the future without a specific cause for such fear, while test anxiety is a more specific phenomenon in which a graded test is the source of fear. The specific nature of this fear is that one will score low on the test at hand.
Sharma and Sud (1990, pp. 183-201) found that female students experience higher levels of test anxiety than do males irrespective of cultural background. The study involved students from four Asian cultures. The conclusion drawn from these findings was that a major causal factor involved in the gender-related differences in test anxiety among students was a greater role expectation conflict among females than among males. Sud (1991, pp. 131-136) examined test anxiety among students in India and the United States. This study found no differences in levels of test anxiety experienced by female and male students; however, the study did find that, in the United States, levels of test anxiety were higher among high school students of both genders than among college students.
el-Zahhar and Hocevar (1991) examined test anxiety among students in Brazil, Egypt, and the United States. The study found that test anxiety in all three cultures was higher among female students than among male students. el-Zahhar and Hocevar (1991) reported, however, that the gender differences in relation to test anxiety were more pronounced in both Brazil and Egypt than in the United States. Cultural differences related to the perceived importance of the consequences associated with superior performance in school in both Brazil and Egypt, as opposed to the United States, were cited as explanations for the variations. Whereas poor or sub-standard academic performance in high school in the United States seldom precludes college or university attendance...