With exams around the corner, stress is definitely approaching all students. No matter if its history, geography or English, the exams are getting increasingly harder every year and the grade boundaries are continuing to rise.
For students, these next couple of months will be a diabolical cluster of stress and anxiety. Forget about free time, as most days will be loaded with the making of revision notes, flashcards and posters to ensure the large subject content is remembered for the exam.
This high amount of stress and anxiety for the forthcoming months is gradually becoming visible in most pupils. One student expressed: “I don’t know how I’m going to cope with eleven subjects. I’m scared I’m going to fail”. However, for the minority of students, it is hard for them to get determined and to get the motivation to do such “tedious revision”. This raises the concern being experienced by teachers at this time, as it is important for them that each student they have taught has “done well and tried their very best”.
Is this exam stress affecting the emotional well-being of students? Over-focus of exams have been causing mental health problems among some students. In a survey with the participation of teachers, it was found that 94% of secondary school teachers acknowledged that during exam periods, students were impelled towards stress-related conditions. This is due to the vast amounts of pressure piled upon students to attain top grades and conform to the high standards of society.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that there is an equal balance between school work and leisure in order to maintain good health at this particular time.
