Regulatory and Personal Resources of Students’ Exam Performance under Different Levels of Stress

Background. Existing models of student academic success do not sufficiently account for how the combination of regulatory and personal resources enables IT students to achieve high performance under exam stress. This study contributes to the development of integrative models of psychological resources in exam success under different stress conditions and provides a conceptual basis for practical recommendations aimed at enhancing students’ stress tolerance. Objectives. The aim is to identify regulatory and personal resources that enable IT students to overcome stress and maintain high academic performance in mathematics and programming. Study Participants. The study involved secondyear IT students (N = 322) of the Moscow Technical University, studying in the specialty “Information Security” (Mage = 19.22; SD = 4.64; 29% of the participants are girls). Methods. The research applied a questionnaire design. Conscious selfregulation (SRP2020), acute and chronic stress (BACS), depression (CESD short version), dispositional optimism (TDOP), personality traits (Big Five), and resilience were evaluated. Results. Three clusters of students with significantly different profiles of regulatory and personal resources were identified: with medium stress and high academic achievement, with low stress and low academic achievement, and with high stress and average academic achievement. High exam success was associated with moderate stress, which enhances concentration and perseverance, whereas excessive or prolonged stress depleted psychological resources and reduced academic performance. Conscious selfregulation of goal achievement acted as a key psychological resource of exam success in both mathematics and programming. Big Five traits, optimism, and resilience operated differently across stress levels and, complementing selfregulation, contributed to exam success by supporting motivation, stress tolerance, engagement, and access to social support. Conclusions. Conscious selfregulation is the primary mechanism for overcoming preexam stress and for ensuring successful completion of exams in mathematics and programming, functioning as a universal regulatory resource. It is complemented by specific regulatory resources: reliability of selfregulation common to both disciplines and subjectspecific competencies (planning and flexibility in mathematics; programming of learning actions in programming). When selfregulation is reduced, the role of personal resources (conscientiousness, openness, optimism) increases, whereas high neuroticism and depression constrain their positive effects.