Abstract

• The main purpose of this study is to investigate the test anxiety of Grade Ten students. In this study, quantitative research design and descriptive survey method were used. To support the purpose of the study, 35 items of Test Anxiety Inventory was used as research instrument. Eight basic education high schools were purposefully selected for this study. A total of 399 Grade Ten students participated in this study. By using simple random sampling technique, 399 students were selected from the four districts in Yangon. As the research instrument, Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) Questionnaire developed by Spielberger (1980), (cited in Khaing Thiri Mon, 2015), was used in this research. The TAI comprised of five sub-scales: Worry, Emotion, Test Irrelevant Thinking, Students’ Expectation and Students’ Reflection. Each sub-scale of instrument was coded by using a four-point Likert scale, with 1= strongly disagree to 4= strongly agree. The result of this study revealed that significant differences existed in Grade Ten students’ test anxiety with respect to gender, school and district. However, there was no difference in test anxiety with respect to specialized combination. It was found that female students have higher test anxiety than male students. Most of the female students have more distress concerning tests than male students. The results indicate that significant differences are found in the total test anxiety scores among different schools. It could be said that students’ test anxiety can vary according to the different school settings.