Academic Stress & What High-Performing Students Struggle With

If you’re a high performer in your studies, you’ve likely felt academic stress at least once during your education. Great performance can often lead to high expectations and a lack of understanding from others about what it takes to achieve these results, which can be frustrating and negatively impact how you work. In this guide, we’ll explore common struggles for high-performing students and how you can reduce the risk of burnout.

Last Updated: 20th March 2025

Author: Matthew Amalfitano-Stroud

You are here:

Home
Revision
Academic Stress & What High-Performing Students Struggle With

Are you a student who regularly performs very well in your academics? Are you generally around the top of your class in many of your subjects? You’re likely a high-performing student, which can be both a blessing and a curse!

Doing well in your studies is a great thing, but being able to consistently perform well is rarely easy. Despite this, friends and family may assume that you’re naturally gifted and that your skills don’t take much effort. This likely isn’t true, but the expectations and assumptions that people have can make it difficult to continue your work without losing motivation or pushing yourself further than you should.

High performance can sometimes lead to academic stress when your work schedule or environment doesn’t meet your needs, so this guide will help you understand where your problems may be coming from and how you can reduce the risk of burnout, especially during the university application process, which may be the most stress-inducing point of your education so far.

What Is A High-Performing Student?

Firstly, let’s consider what a high-performing student actually is. Some would assume that just a student who gets really good grades, but there are far more interpretations of the term than this.

For example, some believe that those who are truly high-performers are those who are naturally gifted and have a specific aptitude for the area they excel in. Others believe that high performers are the ones who not only perform well but also have a genuine passion for what they do.

In reality, there’s no single definition of what a high performer is, and you may find success in your studies for a number of reasons. Whether you’re naturally skilled, extremely interested in the field or have just dedicated a lot of time to studying, your performance is the result of hard work.

However, because of how vague the definition is, those around you may have certain beliefs about how you perform so well. There are plenty of stereotypes that surround high-performers, some of which you may recognise:

High-Performers Love To Study

Since high-performers dedicate so much time to their studies, that must mean they really enjoy this work, right? While most high-performing students will enjoy the subjects they excel in, that doesn’t mean they necessarily enjoy the large amounts of work they have to complete at school.

For example, a student may be putting the work in now to ensure they can secure a career in the field they’re interested in. Alternatively, they may enjoy certain aspects of a subject while disliking others (this can be very common in science, for example). Either way, it’s rare for students to actively enjoy all of the many hours they spend revising and working through projects.

High-Performers Are Naturally Gifted And The Find Work Easy

Many people will assume that those who excel in their field are naturally gifted. While this may be true in some cases, there are just as many other high-performers who started at a normal place and developed their skills manually. Even for those who do have natural skills in an area, this doesn’t mean that the work comes easy to them.

In order to be truly exceptional, high-performers need to push themselves beyond their standard capabilities, whether they have a natural gift or not. While some may have an advantage in one way or another, the work that it takes to develop their skills further is where they truly challenge themselves.

High-Performers Don’t Need Time To Succeed

This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous point, as some will assume that those who are more gifted can do things quickly and without much preparation. Again, this is far from the truth, as high-performers generally take weeks, months or years to become truly great at what they do.

High-Performers Don’t Have Other Interests

As well as assuming that high-performers love everything they do in their work, people may also assume that it’s all they’re interested in. As they dedicate so much time and energy to the area they excel in, it may appear that it’s the only thing they think about.

Obviously, this also isn’t true, as high-performers can have a wide range of interests and hobbies, just like anyone else. They may not share as much about these parts of themselves, or others may just not be paying attention, but most high-performers don’t have a lot more to them than just their studies

All of these stereotypes can have a negative effect on your relationships with others, including your own family, so it’s important to understand why these can be so damaging to your motivation and workflow.

Access Oxbridge application support designed for high performing students with UniAdmissions

UniAdmissions specialises in getting applicants into Oxford and Cambridge, using our dedicated formula to success and limitless resources and support options. Each year, we get hundreds of students their university offers, so join this year’s cohort and boost your chances of getting a place.

Discover our Full-Blue Programmes by clicking the button below to learn how your child can enrol and triple their chances of success.

What Do High Performing Students Struggle With?

Being a high performer has a lot of benefits, but it also comes with its fair share of problems. Many of these problems will come from how others see you and what you’re expected to do with your skills. Let’s explore some of the difficulties you may experience due to your higher academic ability:

High Expectations

If you’ve consistently achieved great results in your studies, those around you are going to continue to expect those results even as the work gets more challenging. Whether or not you’re effectively managing this challenge, having the expectation that you’ll continue your high performance can make the process much more difficult.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but having such a good track record may lead some people to believe that you don’t make mistakes and that you will always be exceptional in what you do. This fear of disappointing those who believe in you can increase your stress and decrease the effectiveness of your preparation, even if you know those expectations are unreasonable. Eventually, this can create a cycle of failing to meet expectations and losing motivation to prepare.

Misunderstanding Of Your Workflow

As mentioned before, many people can assume that talented people find their field of expertise easy to excel in. However, you likely have created a comprehensive workflow to ensure you’re successful in your academics.

While this process has been designed to work well for you, other people may not understand why you approach your work the way you do. Whether it’s your friends, teachers or parents, this lack of understanding may cause them to question the effectiveness of your methods. In a worst-case scenario, they may even attempt to get you to change how you work, which will naturally have a negative impact on your performance.

High-Pressure Environments

High performers will generally be able to do well in high-pressure environments in their education and careers. However, there is a misconception that they also enjoy these high-pressure environments and thrive in their competitiveness. However, for some high-performers, this is far from true.

Many who perform well in their field will do so by creating as calm of an environment as possible, avoiding the more chaotic side of their work when they can. By creating this environment, combined with an effective workflow, they can prepare and complete their work with minimal stress from the outside world, leading to amazing results.

When there is more pressure to engage with others and actively compete to be the best, it can become harder for some people to focus and find the motivation to complete the work that they need to do. Ultimately, this ends in their performance dropping, which will make the environment even more hostile and put an end to the person’s success.

Lack Of Time For Other Interests

We’ve already established that high-performers will often have interests outside of their primary field. However, when they are expected to be exceptional in said field, it can take more and more time to meet those standards as the work gets harder. As this happens, they’ll have less time to engage in other activities that they may enjoy, which will reduce their overall happiness.

Obviously, being less happy in your personal life is going to impact your professional life, so it’s crucial to find the balance between the two. However, when if you’re attempting something that is very difficult and time-consuming, such as applying to Oxford or Cambridge, sacrifices may have to be made in the short term to ensure you achieve your goals. The problem is that this only works when the decision is made by yourself, not by someone else.

Losing Motivation In Your Field

When you’ve engaged with a certain area for so long, it can start to become less exciting. While most people still enjoy what they do after so many years, some may decide that they want a change.

For high-performers, this decision is much harder to make because of how much time they’ve spent perfecting what they do. To start again in a new field can feel like they’re putting those skills to waste. However, high-performers are also much more likely to lose interest in their field, which can happen for a number of reasons.

It may be that they no longer find it challenging or exciting enough, they may be bored with it after spending so much time working in it, or the expectations and workload may have become too challenging, leading to burnout and a desire to quit. No matter the cause, the decision is likely to be met with objections from others that you know.

Beyond this, you may not have even had much interest in the field to begin with. It’s not uncommon for high-performers to have been coaxed into certain fields by external forces, such as their environment or the people around them. If they realise that they aren’t doing what they want and choose to quit, the decision becomes even harder as they will have to contend with the external forces that led them down that path to begin with.

These are all challenges that may have affected how you work or how you are perceived by those around you. In the context of education, all of these can lead to academic stress, which will impact your results and make you less motivated to continue working.

It’s important to avoid this as much as possible, so let’s now explore how we can reduce the negative impact of these struggles.

Access "The Big Book Of Oxbridge Applications" For FREE

Is applying to Oxford or Cambridge causing you stress? The Big Book Of Oxbridge Applications is available for free here and guides you through everything you need to know about Oxbridge admissions. Through over 350 pages, you will find:

Fill in your details below to claim your digital copy today!

How To Reduce Academic Stress

One of the most important things that we should state about these tips is that many of them are dependent on communication. As many of the issues discussed relate to how people engage with you and your studies, clear and effective communication is the best way to solve these issues. Of course, not everyone is in a situation where communication will be effective, so we’ll also explore options that don’t involve other people.

Explaining Your Process

If the people around you don’t understand your process or how you’ve been able to achieve such a high performance, try to explain how you work to them. This doesn’t need to be a highly technical discussion about all of the tools and techniques that you use but try to explain in simple terms how you best learn and complete projects. It may not make complete sense to them, but as long as they understand that your methods deliver results, you should both be able to be in agreement about what is most important.

Setting Boundaries

Now that your family or friends understand your process, it is also a good time to set clear boundaries about when and where you need to work in order to maintain your performance. This doesn’t mean that your processes and results shouldn’t be monitored, but you are essentially asking for their trust and allowing you to manage how you work. If your strategies have brought you success so far, there’s no reason not to continue.

However, it’s also important to recognise when your strategy needs to change and evolve. This may be a good opportunity to seek advice from someone you know, as they may be able to help you adapt your schedule or your methods in a beneficial way. As long as you remain in control of your work and are able to continue to achieve the desired results, there’s no wrong way to approach this.

Seeking Support

Following on from the previous tip, remember that you can always seek help from those around you if you need it. Some may think that you can do it alone, but most people won’t refuse to support you if you ask them for help. You’ll need to be clear about what you need, but asking for help should ease a lot of the stress that you may be feeling.

In certain cases, it may be essential to seek help, as there are plenty of things you can’t do by yourself. Let’s look at a university application, for example. While you may be able to do a lot of the work yourself, there are certain things that require input from others. These include reviewing your Personal Statement, marking mock exams (if they feature longer answers) and conducting mock interviews with you. None of these things can be done effectively by yourself, so seek help from people you trust to help you make the most of your time and effort.

As well as this, seeking support could also simply be asking for something to support your work. This could be a book, access to an online course to trip to somewhere educational that will support your projects. These are all things that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for if others are able to provide them for you. Remember that only you know what you truly need, so communicate that with others.

Take Regular Breaks

In terms of things you can do for yourself, our first tip is an obvious one but one that is easy to forget. Your projects likely require a lot of time to complete, but it’s essential that you still take time away from your work to recharge. This includes breaks within your work sessions and full days off.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to take breaks in order to engage with other interests, though. While you’ll probably want to spend some of your free time doing the activities you enjoy, it’s also fine to have less productive time that you spend doing less engaging activities (or nothing at all!). Ideally, you should have set times to engage in your other interests, along with a few spaces to relax and not worry about productivity.

Set Smaller Goals

If your work starts mounting up and you remain solely focused on your final outcome, it can begin to feel much more like an impossible task, leading to stress and burnout. When you can only see the giant hurdle in front of you, you will either increase your effort to try and get over it or give up and not even attempt the challenge.

This is a poor way to work, so approach things in a different way to make them feel more manageable. Instead of focusing on the end goal, split the task into smaller goals that are far more achievable.

If you’re practising for a test, set a target for how much you want your score to increase each week when completing mock tests. If you’re completing coursework, set weekly or monthly progress milestones to reach. These smaller goals will feel much more achievable and will eventually get you to your final outcome, minus the stress of pushing yourself too far. Of course, achieving each of these goals should also be celebrated with some kind of reward.

Know When To Change Course

Despite how much work you put into your work, some things just won’t work out. Remember, being a high performer doesn’t mean you’re perfect, so things will go wrong from time to time. However, those who are successful will generally know when to make changes in order to avoid major issues and turn things around. It’s important that you can recognise when something you’re doing doesn’t have a positive impact so that you can alter your plans to ensure you are working effectively.

As mentioned before, you may sometimes want to quit entirely if you feel that the route you’re going down isn’t what you want. This is a big decision to make and isn’t one you should make quickly. Seriously consider where your problems lie and if there is a way to improve the situation before you decide to quit.

If you definitely do want to quit, it’s important to know what you’ll do next. Having a backup plan will be essential to ensure you’re still able to find success, but this should really be a last resort if you know for certain that the path you’re on isn’t for you.

That concludes our guide to academic stress for high-performing students. We hope these tips will have inspired you to consider the struggles you may be facing and work towards lessening the stress they cause.

If you’re motivated to get into a top university but find that you don’t have the right resources or support to prepare for the difficult admissions process, UniAdmissions’ Full-Blue Programme may be exactly what you need. We provide high-performing students with a comprehensive curriculum to ensure they get their offer, including unlimited one-to-one tuition, expert resources, intensive courses and much more. Learn more about our wide range of programmes today.

Reduce the pressure of the Oxbridge application with support from UniAdmissions

If the Oxbridge application seems too much for you to handle, comprehensive support is available. As a UniAdmissions student, you will have access to unlimited one-to-one tuition, intensive courses, a large suite of resources and much more. We get more students into Oxbridge than any other school.

Discover our Full-Blue Programmes by clicking the button below to learn how your child can enrol and triple their chances of success.

0 +

UniAdmissions students placed at Oxford And Cambridge

To maximize our students’ chances of getting their offer, through our Scholar Limit we have reduced the number of students per programme to provide a higher standard of teaching and support.