The Stress Level and Academic Performances for Chinese Overseas Research Paper

The Stress Level and Academic Performances for Chinese Overseas Students in Australia - Research Paper Example Using questionnaires and interview as research instruments, the researcher gathered data from Chinese postgraduate students from different kinds of field in University of Western Sydney. Using the questionnaire, the researcher collected data in areas such as the age of participant, gender of participant, the courses studied by participants, extra activities undertaken by participants such as part-time work, how participants spent their leisure among other things. Results obtained from students go a long way to show that most of the students go through stressful activities during the day even aside their studies. Combining studies with such activities therefore worsen their stress level. In the long run, it was revealed students with very high levels of stressful activities performed poorly compared to those who went through normal routines of the day. Introduction Learning is an act that demands so much mental attention and concentration. To this effect, it is almost a requirement th at before learning can take place, the mind (brain) must be in a state of alertness to receive the volumes of new ideas that is being added to it. Sadly though, most students who are the anchor of learning find themselves deprived of the state of alertness that is being discussed here. Such students lose their mental alertness to stress. Quoting Selye (1974 p. 27), Murff (2006) states that stress is a "nonspecific response of the body to any demands made upon it". This means that stress is a reaction that the body (and more specifically brain) gives towards any act of pressure that is placed on it. Koduah (2008) explains that the pressure that demands the body to respond is often found on the brain. To this effect, stress can be said to be a mental state of tiredness and this tiredness arises because there is so much pressure on the brain. Literally, one would be tempted to think that the only time that the brain is made to work is the time that the brain is being used to think and so it tiredness of the brain results only out of excessive thinking. This assumption is not correct. Rather, the brain is responsible for carrying out 80% of all activities that any part of the body undertakes (Kanner, 1981). This means that apart from activities that demand thinking, in undertaking activities with other parts of our body, it is actually the brain that we are using most. As elucidated by Garret (2001), stress is no respecter of person. Once so much pressure is put on the body, the mind gets tired and stress will sets in. Students have been identified to be one of the worse sufferers of stress (Murff, 2006). This is because apart from the fact that learning itself demands so much mental alertness and puts so much pressure on the brain, students are faced other activities and processes such as adjusting to university life and routines (Ross, Neibling and Heckert, 1999). Some of these activities and processes demand that students make new friends, have regular inter-pe rsonal relationships, work within fixed and at times