Purpose: This paper aims to survey the status quo of the student pressure and the relationship between their daily time management and their learning outcomes in three different types of higher secondary schools at Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning Province in mainland China. Design/methodology/approach: An investigation was carried out in 14 higher secondary schools (HSS) located in five districts of Shenyang. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used, such as interviews and questionnaires. Findings: The important findings include: the students pressure sources in three different types of higher secondary schools, the strongest pressure felt by the HSS students in China was the pressure from national college entrance examinations (NCEE), the rank orders of other pressures were pressures from parents, from society, from others, from schools, from teachers. The findings also include the relationship between student time management (time for sleep, time for getting up, time spent at schools, time for doing homework) and the students learning, the tests frequency in different types of HSS, the relationship between the tests frequency and student learning outcomes, etc. Originality/value: To survey the HSS students' pressure causes, to explore the relationship between their time management and learning outcomes, to find out the effective learning factors and strategies will benefit students, teachers and schools worldwide. (Contains 6 figures.)