Stress and achievement motivation of higher secondary students

School and examinations are inevitable aspects of children in today’s world, in which academic stress and achievement motivation are ubiquitous problems. To measure this, 200 Higher Secondary students were selected from two Government higher secondary schools, Coimbatore. The results revealed that majority of the sample (55%) experienced low levels of stress. 14% of the sample experienced Very High stress. Achievement Motivation was low and very low in majority (53%) of the sample. The correlation between stress and achievement motivation was not statistically significant. The male and female students significantly differ in their stress levels.  A statistically significant difference in stress was found between the Tamil and English medium students. The mean difference in achievement motivation of the sample with regard to gender was statistically significant, with regard to medium of instruction, it was not statistically significant.