Academic Performance as a Function of Level of Aspiration & Gender – A Comparative Study amongst Different Streams of Education

The present study examines the level of aspiration of students belonging to different streams of education and its impact on academic performance. The sample of the study consisted of 717 students (358 males and 358 females). The age range of the sample was 18 to 19 years. Tool used for measuring level of aspiration was Level of Aspiration Measure developed by Dr. Mahesh Bhargava and Prof. M A Shah. Goal Discrepancy Score is the difference between aspiration and the achievement on the same trial. The percentiles of marks obtained in the last qualifying exam were treated as an indicator of academic performance. For inferential purpose the data was treated with ANOVA and Scheffe’s test of Multiple Comparison. The findings of the study revealed that no significant difference exists between Academic Performance of students with high and low achievers belonging to Engineering and Management streams of education; however there exists significant differences between academic performances of students with high and low Level of Aspiration belonging to Law fraternity; with students showing low Level of Aspiration performing better than students with high Level of Aspiration. There exists no significant difference between academic performance of boys and girls with respect to Level of Aspiration in engineering stream. However, there exists significant difference between academic performance of boys and girls with respect to Level of Aspiration in Management and Legal streams of education. In both the streams girls outshine boys.