With exams looming in the corner, stress and anxiety among students are on the increase. But although it may motivate some to study, is it healthy? 

Before answering this question, it is important to acknowledge that everyone deals with exams differently so while some can revise up to eight hours a day or more, most of us are struggling with just one. This is where exam stress starts to accumulate and the anxiety starts to take over our vulnerable minds. This can have devastating consequences such as the 130 suicides between January 2014 and April 2015 with 29% facing exams or exam results in which four had died on exam day or the day after. Although we cannot assume that this was the only factor causing these tragedies, it still evidently played a big role.  

With the introduction of the new and tougher GCSE's it is now important more than ever that students find a balance between school work and relaxation. We interviewed year 11 student Meera Khan who told us that, " since year 11 I feel like the stress and pressure has built up immensely not only because of the pressure put on me by teachers but also the pressure I put on myself. As a result, I have been getting very little sleep due to revision and I feel like I'm slowly but surely burning out." 

From this we can conclude that indeed, exams do impact our mental health negatively. But how can you cope with this?  

  • As oppose to revising in big chunks try the Pomodoro style revision where you revise for 25 minutes and then take a five-minute break and repeat  
  • The five second rule, Mel Robbins found that if we count down from 5 every time we feel like procrastinating, it helps you to be focused again  
  • Look after your physical health, whilst taking care of our mental well-being is important we must also have a healthy diet and routine 
  • Don’t be afraid to take a day off, if you are not in the right mindset then your revision will not be as effective, so take a break if u need it 

By Umeh Jamiath, SRS