Does Academic Stress Effect Students’ Performance?

It has been affirmed by several studies that stress being a common cause to meager academic performance among students. Therefore, for the determination of the affiliation between academic performance of students and stress we have used the data of 110 students of 11 and 12 grade enrolled in the private and public sector colleges in Karachi, Pakistan. This study is descriptive in nature conducted on the relationship of stress and academic performance.The selection criteria were intermediate as it is a transition stage for students and this level determines their available career choices and it is associated with a lot of academic demands on the students which is most likely to create tension and stress as the student strives to keep pace with the rigorous academic demands. The questionnaire for this study consisted of two sections. Section A was designed to collect data on personal characteristics such as age and gender and we have chosen last obtained GPA/ Grade / percentage as a proxy for academic performance. The other Section B focused on the study objective, the effect of Academic Stress on academic performance of 11 and 12 grade students. Reliability has been ensured by carrying out a preliminary test (pilot study). The data obtained from the study has been analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. This involved data entry into frequency tables, mean and chi-square analysis for inferential statistics.Results of this study designate that generally students experience stress during examination which is seen as physiological, psychological and behavioral changes and abnormality. This study analyzed that how much academic stress contributes towards this declining trend of results and such a huge difference between the passing percentages of matriculation and intermediate.