Displacements converge faster than stresses. Even though the displacements seem to have converged, the lower-order elements need more refined meshes (compared to the higher-order elements) before the stresses are observed to converge. Stresses are most accurate at the integration points within the element. When stress values are extrapolated from the integration points to the nodes and then averaged, the stress values calculated may not capture the peak values if a stress gradient is present. Since the higher-order elements (B32, B32H, B33, and B33H) use linear extrapolation within an element, a stress gradient in an element may be captured adequately when extrapolating stresses to the nodes. However, constant extrapolation is used for linear elements (B31, B31H, S4, S4R, and SC8R), which results in slow convergence of nodal stress values. Higher mesh refinement near stress gradients is needed for such elements.