Predictive Modelling of Exam Outcomes Using Stress-Aware Learning from Wearable Biosignals

This study investigates the feasibility of using wearable technology and machine learning algorithms to predict academic performance based on physiological signals. It also examines the correlation between stress levels, reflected in the collected physiological data, and academic outcomes. To this aim, six key physiological signals, including skin conductance, heart rate, skin temperature, electrodermal activity, blood volume pulse, inter-beat interval, and accelerometer were recorded during three examination sessions using a wearable device. A novel pipeline, comprising data preprocessing and feature engineering, is proposed to prepare the collected data for training machine learning algorithms. We evaluated five machine learning models, including Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Categorical Boosted (CatBoost), and Gradient-Boosting Machine (GBM), to predict the exam outcomes. The Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), followed by hyperparameter tuning and dimensionality reduction, are implemented to optimise model performance and address issues like class imbalance and overfitting. The results obtained by our study demonstrate that physiological signals can effectively predict stress and its impact on academic performance, offering potential for real-time monitoring systems that support student well-being and academic success.