30-item measure of stressful life events specific to college and university students. ≈ 5 min to complete. Free with attribution.
SUS (Student Stress Scale) is a validated clinical instrument used to assess 30-item measure of stressful life events specific to college and university students.. It is most often used for 30-item measure of stressful life events specific to college and university students.. The instrument contains 10 items. Typical administration time is ≈ 5 min.
Source / attribution: Free to use with citation
30-item measure of stressful life events specific to college and university students. SUS is part of standard practice in this setting because it provides a structured, replicable assessment that can be tracked over time and compared across patients or visits.
Like all screening or assessment instruments, SUS is a structured aid — not a diagnostic test in isolation. Results should be interpreted alongside history, examination, and clinical context. Where a score crosses an actionable threshold, the next step is typically a more detailed clinical evaluation rather than a definitive diagnosis.
Answer all 10 items below to see your SUS score and interpretation.
Each item is scored on a 5-point scale (1–5). Your score updates live as you answer.
All scoring runs in your browser. No data is sent anywhere — close the tab and the answers are gone.
Count endorsed events weighted by severity. Total range 0-1000+. Higher scores = greater cumulative stress.
Scoring notes: Count endorsed events weighted by severity. Total range 0-1000+. Higher scores = greater cumulative stress.
The cutoffs below are drawn from the published validation literature. Always interpret in clinical context.
| Score range | Band | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0–150 | Low stress | None |
| 151–300 | Moderate stress | Coping strategies |
This is an illustrative walkthrough, not a real patient. Follow the same four steps with your own answers — or use the live calculator at the top of this page.
Read each question and choose the response that best fits. Each response has a number next to it — that number is the item's score. The example below uses illustrative answers.
| # | Item | Example response | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I think I would like to use this system frequently | Strongly agree | 5 |
| 2 | I found the system unnecessarily complex | Strongly disagree | 5 |
| 3 | I thought the system was easy to use | Strongly agree | 5 |
| 4 | I think I would need the support of a technical person to use this system | Strongly disagree | 5 |
| 5 | I found the various functions in this system were well integrated | Strongly agree | 5 |
| 6 | I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system | Strongly disagree | 5 |
| 7 | I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly | Strongly agree | 5 |
| 8 | I found the system very cumbersome to use | Strongly disagree | 5 |
| 9 | I felt very confident using the system | Strongly agree | 5 |
| 10 | I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system | Strongly disagree | 5 |
Add up all the item scores you noted in Step 1.
5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 50
Find the row in the interpretation table whose range contains your total:
Total = 50 falls between 0 and 150 → Low stress
Low stress. None
A score is one input alongside history and examination. SUS supports clinical judgment — it does not replace it.
Psychometric figures are drawn from the validation literature and may vary across clinical populations and translations.
If SUS doesn't fit your context, related instruments in academic include:
| Scale | Measures | Items | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRBA | 20-item measure of student attitudes toward research and research self-efficacy. | 20 | ≈ 5 min |
| PHQ-9 | Severity of depression | 9 | ≈ 3 minutes |
| GAD-7 | Severity of generalized anxiety | 7 | ≈ 2 minutes |
| AUDIT | 10-item WHO screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. | 10 | ≈ 3 min |
| CHA2DS2-VASc | Annual stroke risk in non-valvular atrial fibrillation | 8 | — |
| Glasgow Coma Scale | Level of consciousness after head injury | 3 | — |
| MELD-Na | 3-month mortality in advanced liver disease; transplant prioritization | 5 | — |
SUS (Student Stress Scale) is a validated instrument that assesses stressful life events specific to college and university students. It is designed for clinicians, medical students, evidence-synthesis researchers. It takes about 5 min to complete, and the 10 items are summed to produce a total score.
SUS typically takes about 5 min to administer. The exact duration varies a little depending on whether it is self-administered or completed with a clinician. Its brief format is part of what makes it practical for routine clinical use and for repeat administration when tracking change over time.
SUS contains 10 items. Item scores are summed to produce the total. Scores run from 0 to 300, grouped into 2 interpretation bands from ‘Low stress’ up to ‘Moderate stress’.
On the SUS (total score 0–300), scores of 151–300 fall in the ‘Moderate stress’ band — interpreted as: Coping strategies. The full ladder is: 0–150 — Low stress: None.; 151–300 — Moderate stress: Coping strategies. A higher score reflects a more severe presentation, and crossing a cutoff is a prompt to step up assessment or care — but these bands are screening thresholds, not diagnoses.
Scores of 0–150 fall in the ‘Low stress’ band: None. A low score is reassuring but does not by itself rule out the underlying condition — if symptoms or clinical suspicion persist, reassess over time or use a complementary evaluation rather than relying on the number alone.
SUS has reported Cronbach's α of 0.85 in validation samples and test–retest reliability of 0.8. Student-specific life event stress measure. In practical terms, a Cronbach’s α around 0.85 indicates good internal consistency (the items hang together well), and a test–retest reliability of 0.8 means scores are strongly stable when the scale is repeated without real clinical change.
SUS is free to use with attribution — clinical, educational, and research use is permitted provided the original source is credited. If you publish results or reproduce the scale, include the citation to the source paper.
Feldt, R. C. (2008). Development of the Student Stress Scale. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 40(4), 178-186. This is the original publication for the SUS — the reference to cite when reporting results.
No. SUS is a structured assessment aid, not a diagnostic test. Its proper role is clinical assessment of stressful life events specific to college and university students — it standardizes assessment and flags who needs closer evaluation, but the result must be weighed alongside history, examination, and clinical context. When a score conflicts with your clinical impression, clinical judgment takes precedence; treatment decisions should never rest on a screening score alone.
SUS is supported by the following peer-reviewed sources: