Project 1:

Parker Stastny

Abigale Taylor

ENC2135

July 12th, 2025

The Effects of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Pressure on Students

In today’s fast-paced and competitive world, students are under more pressure than ever before. Schools, parents, and society push young people to succeed, get high grades, and attend top colleges. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT are becoming more common in education. Many students use these tools to help them write essays, solve math problems, or get study tips. These tools can be helpful, but there is a downside: using them too much can make students lose important thinking skills. Combined with high academic pressure, this creates a serious problem. Many students are doing well on the surface but are struggling with anxiety, stress, and a lack of independence. This essay explores how too much academic pressure and reliance on AI are affecting students’ learning, well-being, and personal growth—and what we can do to fix it.

AI tools like ChatGPT can answer questions, explain ideas, and even write papers. This sounds great, but there’s a hidden risk. When students rely too much on AI, they may stop thinking for themselves. According to Duhaylungsod and Chavez, students who constantly turn to AI tools for help tend to lose motivation and become less confident in their thinking. They explain that skills like critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving can get weaker when students depend on AI to do hard work. In fact, some students even stop questioning if the AI’s answer is correct—they just accept it without checking. This is called “verification inertia,” and it can hurt students in the long run (Duhaylungsod and Chavez). Let’s say a student uses AI to write an essay. At first, they save time and feel less stressed. But over time, they might find it harder to organize ideas or come up with original arguments. This can make them less prepared for college or jobs where creative thinking is important. Even worse, if the AI gives wrong information and students don’t realize it, they may learn false facts. That’s a big problem because it shows how overusing AI can damage not just how students think, but what they know.

Another issue with relying too much on AI is that it can make students feel less responsible for their work. If they don’t come up with their own ideas, they don’t feel ownership of their assignments. That can lead to blurred lines between getting help and cheating. Grassini points out that when AI is used without guidance from teachers, it can cause students to lose their voice and become passive learners. Students might use AI to write homework, answer discussion posts, or brainstorm ideas, but never truly understand what they’re turning into (Grassini). This not only weakens their learning but also raises ethical questions about fairness and honesty in school. This situation is especially dangerous because many students already feel the pressure to succeed at any cost. When using AI becomes a shortcut, it can turn into a form of academic dishonesty—even if students don’t mean to cheat. That’s why schools need to teach students how to use AI responsibly. Instead of banning these tools, teachers can help students learn when and how to use them in a way that supports learning instead of replacing them.

Along with the rise of AI, students are also facing huge amounts of academic pressure. In advanced classes like AP and IB, students often feel like they’re always racing to meet deadlines and get perfect grades. Raymond Kilmer’s research shows that high school students in competitive programs suffer from stress, anxiety, and exhaustion. They lose sleep, quit hobbies, and become isolated from friends because they believe their future depends entirely on grades (Kilmer). This mindset makes learning feel like a job instead of a journey. The problem doesn’t just come from school. Parents and peers also play a big role in adding pressure. Many parents push their kids to be the best so they can get into top universities. Students compete with their classmates instead of working together. As a result, school becomes less about learning and more about surviving. In this kind of environment, students stop taking risks or asking questions. They just do whatever it takes to get an A. Some even begin to see cheating as a normal way to keep up. Kilmer describes how students in these programs sometimes feel forced to cheat—not because they want to, but because they feel like they have no other choice. This shows how stress and pressure can change how students think right and wrong.

Cheating is not just a personal failure—it often reflects a system that puts too much pressure on students. Alviani and her co-authors studied students at an Indonesian university and found that cheating often happens when students feel both pressure and opportunity. If it’s easy to cheat and students can justify it, they are more likely to do it. However, the study also found something interesting: academic pressure alone doesn’t always lead to cheating. In fact, some students who felt pressure were less likely to cheat if they had a strong sense of ethics (Alviani et al.). This means that moral values and character education still matter. Teaching students what’s right and wrong—and helping them understand why honesty matters—can make a big difference. This also shows that cheating is not just about laziness. It’s often a response to fear, stress, and feeling overwhelmed. Schools should respond to cheating not just with punishment, but also with support. That includes helping students manage their workload, making sure they understand material, and talking openly about ethics and integrity.

Besides thinking and ethics, AI can also affect creativity. Some people think AI will make students more creative, and in some ways that’s true. Sabrina Habib writes about a study where students used AI to brainstorm uses for a paperclip. The students who used AI came up with more ideas and felt more productive. But there was a catch: later on, those students had a hard time being creative without help. They became unsure of their own ideas and depended on the AI to think for them (Habib). This shows that AI can help students get started, but it can also take away their creative confidence. If students always rely on AI to give them ideas, they may stop trusting themselves. Habib recommends using AI in balance. For example, students can brainstorm with AI sometimes but also do projects without any AI help. Teachers can also show students how to review and improve AI responses, so they stay in control of their learning.

It’s also important to talk about how academic pressure affects students’ mental health. Michael Vallejo explains that pressure comes from many sources—not just schools and parents, but also from the students themselves. Many students are perfectionists. They believe they must always do well, or they are failures. This way of thinking can cause anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and even physical illness (Vallejo). Some students become so focused on success that they lose their sense of who they are. They may stop exploring new interests or making friends because they’re too busy studying. Vallejo warns against the idea that students just need to be tougher. He calls this a “resilience-only” approach. It says that students should simply learn to cope with stress instead of fixing the things that cause stress. Instead, he suggests that schools take a more active role. For example, schools can do workload audits to see how much pressure they are placing on students. They can offer flexible deadlines or allow time off for mental health. They can also teach students how to manage stress and emotions in healthy ways. Parents and communities also have a role to play in making sure students feel supported, not just pushed.

The mix of AI use and academic pressure creates a complicated situation for today’s students. On one hand, AI offers benefits. It can speed up grading, offer personalized tutoring, and make learning easier for students with disabilities. On the other hand, when AI is used too much or without guidance, it can harm thinking skills, creativity, and responsibility. In the same way, academic pressure can help students reach goals, but too much of it can cause harm to their health, values, and motivation. To fix these issues, we need a complete approach. First, schools should teach students how to use AI responsibly. That means not just using it for homework, but understanding how it works, its limits, and when not using it. Teachers should include lessons on AI in the curriculum and train students in “algorithmic literacy,” or how to think critically about machine-generated content. Second, schools need to rethink how students assess themselves. Tests and grades should measure deep learning and creativity, not just memorization or speed. Finally, schools, families, and communities must support students’ mental health. That includes offering counseling, reducing unnecessary stress, and encouraging balance in students’ lives.

The challenges today’s students face is unlike those of any previous generation. Artificial intelligence is changing the way we learn, think, and create. At the same time, academic pressure is pushing students harder than ever—sometimes to the point of breaking. These two powerful forces—technology and pressure—are not inherently bad. In fact, both have the potential to empower learners and unlock new opportunities. But when misused or left unchecked, they can slowly erode the skills, confidence, and well-being that students need to thrive in the real world. Throughout this essay, we’ve seen how over reliance on AI tools like ChatGPT can weaken essential cognitive abilities. When students no longer need to wrestle with tough ideas, solve problems on their own, or express original thoughts, they risk losing their ability to think deeply and independently. Similarly, we’ve examined how relentless academic pressure—fueled by parental expectations, competitive school environments, and fear of failure—can lead to stress, burnout, dishonesty, and even mental health crises. What’s most concerning is how these two problems feed off each other. A stressed-out student may turn to AI for relief, and in doing so, become more dependent and less confident in their abilities. That same student may feel trapped in a cycle were getting the work done quickly becomes more important than learning, growing, or enjoying the process. As students become more anxious, more isolated, and more robotic in their approach to learning, the true purpose of education is at risk of being lost. But there is hope—and responsibility. Educators, parents, and communities must come together to reshape how we view success in school. This begins with acknowledging that academic excellence should not come at the cost of mental health or ethical behavior. Schools must move beyond systems that reward only speed and correctness. Instead, they should value creativity, resilience, curiosity, and well being. Assessments must be designed to encourage original thought, personal growth, and deep engagement—not just surface-level achievement. Artificial intelligence should not be feared, nor should it be blindly embraced. It should be treated like any powerful tool: with respect, guidance, and limits. Teachers can play a key role in showing students how to work with AI instead of relying on it. By integrating lessons on algorithmic thinking, media literacy, and responsible tech use into the curriculum, schools can give students the tools to make smart, ethical decisions about when and how to use AI. The goal is not to remove AI from education, but to use it in ways that strengthen—not replace—students’ abilities.

Works Cited

Duhaylungsod, Jordan, and Angela Chavez. The Cognitive and Ethical Implications of Over Reliance on AI Dialogue Systems in Academic Contexts: A Systematic Review. Journal of Educational Technology Research, vol. 48, no. 2, 2023, pp. 145–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedtechres.2023.02.007.

Kilmer, Raymond W., III. High School Stress and Cheating: Developing an Understanding of the Factors that Influence Stress and Cheating in High School Students. 2017.

Grassini, Simone. Shaping the Future of Education: Exploring the Potential and Consequences of AI and ChatGPT in Educational Settings. Education Sciences, vol. 13, no. 7, 2023, p. 692. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13070692.

Alviani, Vina Nur, Asep Kurniawan, and Bambang Sugiharto. The Influence of Academic Pressure, Opportunity of Cheating and Rationalization of Cheating on the Behavior of Academic Cheating with Perception of Accounting Ethics as a Moderating Variable (on STIE Sutaatmadja Subang Accounting Students). vol. 1, no. 1, June 2016, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Sutaatmadja. https://scispace.com/pdf/the-influence-of-academic pressure-opportunity-of-cheating-1wdvda46ja.pdf.

Vallejo, Michael. "Academic Pressure: Causes, Effects, and Coping Strategies." Mental Health Center Kids, 13 Nov. 2023, https://mentalhealthcenterkids.com/blogs/articles/academicpressure.

Habib, Sabrina. "AI Can Help − and Hurt − Student Creativity." University of South Carolina, 5 Feb. 2024, https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2024/02/conversation-ai-help.php.