Threats to studying questionnaire
The Learning and Wellbeing Team
Students face so many challenges attending university. Whether it’s troubles with friends, dealing with a breakup, or trying to juggle work, friends and school work, there’s a lot that can get in the way and threaten your ability to do your very best. studies, When asked about the factors that negatively affected their performance on tests, papers, assignments and exams, students identify a wide range of challenges — everything from mental illness, too many extracurricular activities or obligations at work, relationship difficulties, conflict with friends, as well as too much internet.
The Threats to Studying Questionnaire was designed to assist you in identifying the most significant and serious threats you may face while trying to study. You be asked about sixteen of the most important threats to study, including the use of stimulants, prioritizing friends over school work, late bedtime and short sleeps. Scores on this questionnaire range from 0 to 68 points. High scores indicate a high level of threat. Low scores indicate a low level of threat. After reviewing your overall scores, be sure to look at the feedback for individual questions that appears in your full-page report. Items marked with a red x represent a significant threat and can be potentially problematic.
Keep in mind:
The questionnaire you are about to take was designed to identify potential threats. It is important to keep in mind that a potential threat (e.g., working too many shifts at work while studying) may not necessarily adversely affect your grades. But it is, nevertheless, an important threat to keep in mind. One or two threats, such as working many shifts, need not become a problem if you are able to minimize the overall number of threats you are facing.
What do I do next?
After completing the test and reviewing your detailed feedback, identify one or two threats that you would like to try to reduce or eliminate. It is likely that you may identify one or two threats that you are not able to very much about at all. Many students have to work more than they would like to, which can represent a significant threat to doing well. However, the goal here is to identify a number of threats, big and small, that you can do something about.
Small changes
Making even a small change may make just enough of a difference to keep you on track. Three small changes, such as getting a bit more sleep, moving one shift at work to a different day, or squeezing in a bit more schoolwork before hanging out with friends, may be enough to improve your performance in school or reduce your overall stress.
What if those changes don’t work?
You may discover that even after making some changes, you have not been able to make enough of a change, or you may discover that making a number of successful changes (e.g., getting more sleep, putting school before friends) is still not enough to offset the impact of other threats (e.g., working too much). In either of these situations, you will likely need some help in developing a plan about what to do. Talking with an academic advisor, coach, or counsellor can be extremely helpful. You may also wish to review our resource on how to think strategically about school.
