Abinayaa Vigneswaran
Exam season can be one of the most stressful periods during a student’s time in education, even though stress can get you to realise its importance, high levels of stress can hinder a student’s ability to perform well in studies, lose concentration and affect mental health hence bringing awareness and understanding the impact and its best effective way to tackle stress.
So how does stress impact exam performance?
Stress can play a major physical role in not enabling your body and brain to carry out their function well when focusing and recalling information studied. Stress can release hormones such as cortisol, which causes memory problems, making it difficult to retain and recall information. This can also lead to a lack of concentration, making it difficult to focus and complete the examination to the best standards. Stress does not only emotionally impact younger pupils but also physically, for instance, too much stress can exponentially impact students’ mental health, causing depression and anxiety, leading to panic attacks, fatigue/unconsciousness, sleep deprivation, and weaker immunity.
How to manage excessive stress?
There are many ways we can avoid undue stress, starting from spreading out workloads and avoiding cramming. This can be achieved with a well-organised, realistic revision plan. Another important factor is regular breaks which ease the mind after long study sessions, avoid feeling overwhelmed and help absorb more information. Ensuring that your physical being is taken good care of by sleeping the recommended 7-9 hours does improve memory and concentration. As well as staying hydrated, eating well, regular exercise, and etrying out meditation can also help with the body and mind.
Reaching out for support is also highly recommended, whether that is in school, speaking to teachers, friends and family or seeking professional help with the GP, therapist or councillor can ease the stress and is one of the most effective ways.
Stress at these peak points of your educational or work life is natural but balancing it, staying organised and focused is in your hands to do the best you can in these important milestones. You can do this!
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https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2023/2/9-1
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There are some really useful tips for managing stress here. I think that we should also look at the types of assessments and in particular the way they are structured. Perhaps ongoing assessment which is more spread out or allowing students to choose the type of assessment that plays to their strengths would reduce stress levels. From a societal perspective, exams are seen as the gold standard form of assessment and other forms of assessment perhaps less rigorous so that should also be addressed.