Effect Of Stress On Academic Performance Among Mechanical Engineering Students

Abstract

University students undertaking professional courses face general stress while being exposed to environmental, professional and academic challenges, which commonly subjects them to depression, anxiety and stress. This study was conducted to explore the effect of general stress on the academic performance of freshmen undergraduates, in cases of impromptu and long term examinations. General prevailing stress of the students was monitored though valid questionnaire; Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), and categorized into five different stress levels i.e. Normal, Mild, Moderate, Severe and Extremely Severe. The cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of the students was utilized as a measure of long-term academic performance and the scores of correctly completed surprise quiz activity under strict time constraints was used for spontaneous short-term academic performance. This study was conducted on 93 students, of age group 18 to 21 years, from School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SMME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan, enrolled in the second semester of bachelors in mechanical engineering. Being an exploratory study sample did not comprise students from multiple disciplines and semesters. Convenient sampling was done based on the availability of students. Student’s t-test was used to explore statistical associations. Out of 93 participants, (97%) were males and (3%) were females. Average age of the participants was 18.8 years, 14 (15.0%) students had mild, 16 (17.2%) had moderate, 15 (16.1%) had severe while 5 (5.37%) had an extremely severe level of stress. Through this analysis it was found that there is a significant difference between CGPA of normal and moderately stressed student’s F (1,57) = 5.1066, p=0.02767. In long term analysis of stress it was observed that CGPA of moderately stressed students was better as compared to students without stress, while on the other hand decline in performance was observed among students with increased or decreased stress level. While analysing short term impact of stress, stress was induced among students through surprise quiz, it was observed that students under high stress Abstract XIV performed relatively better in surprise quiz as compared to normal ones F (1,91) = 2.7021, p=0.10367, though the results were not strongly significant. Through this study we have identified that the students who experience moderate levels of general stress perform generally better in comparison to their fellows who experience much higher or much lower stress levels. Appropriate stress or appropriate level of challenge among students is necessary for optimal performance. Based on the findings, systematic conclusions are drawn and recommendations are compiled which would positively influence student’s academic performance in particular and student’s overall mental health in general.