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The purpose of this study was to ascertain if cross-cultural differences in test anxiety and personality characteristics (eg, coping strategies, and perfectionism) associated with test anxiety exist between Australian and US students. University students from Australia (n= 89) and the United States of America (n= 143) completed test anxiety, coping strategy and perfectionism questionnaires. Results indicated no difference in test anxiety between the Australian and US samples, with females generally reporting higher test anxiety than males. Test anxiety was positively correlated with avoidant coping and socially prescribed perfectionism in both countries. This study was the first to compare Australian and US students on test anxiety, and provides indirect evidence that recent US test anxiety research may be generalised to the Australian population.

Students generally endure time-pressured, intensive examinations where the outcome often imposes educational, occupational, and financial implications (Leary & Kowalski, 1995). For a considerable portion of students, the highly critical nature of examinations may result in heightened test anxiety (Weiner & Carton, 2012). Test anxiety is defined as a tendency to react with worry and unhelpful thoughts when encountering a testing situation (Spielberger & Vagg, 1995). The theoretically accepted dimensions of test anxiety are emotionality (ie, physiological responses) and worry (ie, the internal dialogue) surrounding the evaluative situation (Cassady & Johnson, 2002). Researchers (eg, Bandalos, Yates, & Thorndike-Christ, 1995) have found a significant negative association between test anxiety and academic …