Skip the Stress and Shine!

“We live in a test-conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance.” (Sarason et al., 1960)

Have you ever felt nervous in a room when tests are mentioned?

Think of the time when you were going to give the final exam of your most difficult subject. During the preparation time, did you get sick with fever or have an upset stomach, or maybe constant headaches? Were there any emotional breakdowns, sleepless nights or excessive fatigue? Ever experienced a lack of concentration? Did you feel dizzy on the way to the examination centre or maybe got nausea the moment you got the question paper?

If yes, then you MIGHT be having something known as Examination Stress.

Stress: The Basics

While it is quite common to get the nerves before or during exams, one thing which is not common is being so stressed out of one’s mind, that the functioning abilities go down the drain, leaving the mind blank, resulting in fear and anxiety levels getting off the roof.

Stress itself is a common and, dare I say, an important phenomenon in our life. It is what one would call “a necessary evil”. It refers to two things: our perception of pressure caused by any event, and the way our body responds to it.

Stress can help an individual to meet and respond to a threat or danger as aptly as possible, whether in a life-threatening situation like meeting a bear in a forest or in daily life, such as having a punctured tire right when one must go to work. This stress is called Eustress. But when it starts affecting life to the point where we can’t function adequately, then we have a problem which is: Distress. And it’s worse if it is chronic. Chronic stress causes our muscles to be more or less in a state of constant tension. Muscle atrophy, panic attacks, cardiovascular problems, depression, and various kinds of anxiety disorders are common side-effects of stress.

In the World of Education…

Examination stress is a student’s interactions between environmental stressors, the student’s cognitive appraisal of and coping with the academic-related stressors, and psychological or physiological response to the stressors (Lee & Larson, 2000).

That’s a lot of words here, so let’s simplify it: Examination stress is simply the way students perceive an environmental stressor and an academic stressor, and how they perceive their coping mechanisms and psychophysiological responses to the stressors. Exam stress causes our perception to get muddled up as we negatively appraise the environmental stimuli (for example, “What would people say if I get a low score?” “I won’t get my favourite hoodie because mom said low score means no hoodie”) and the academic stimuli (for instance, panicking and having negative thoughts of impending doom and failure, after not being able to solve a math equation, or not being able to remember the stages of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory).

Though, in all honesty, exam stress is not the only thing making the students miserable. For some, even the thought of studying can be nerve-wracking. There can be a disinterest in attending classes, a lack of comprehension of subjects even after rigorous practice, and an apprehension of the potential failure in academics. Thakkar (2018) in an article on Medium described tests, grades, homework, academic and achievement expectations and parental pressure as students’ biggest academic stressors. A study conducted by Misra and Castillo (2004) revealed that American college students have self-imposed academic stress (due to the tendency to compete and win), due to the competitive American culture.

As a whole, academic stress is multifactorial, arising from both academic and non-academic factors, including socio-cultural (such as the student’s gender, nationality, religion, even sexuality), environmental (such as the workspace, college facilities, faculty, and the overall ambience), and psychological attributes (whether the student has any previous mental health problem or their attitude towards studies) (Brand and Schoonheim-Klein, 2009).

EXAMINATION STRESS ACROSS THE GLOBE

India has a board exam system, much similar to the one faced by British students. But school-goers are not the only ones suffering from bouts of anxiety and self-doubt here. The study conducted by Jain and Kumari (2014) revealed that college students, especially from the Arts or Social Sciences field, experience the highest level of stress and anxiety caused before or during exams.

In South Korea, behind the gleaming façade of K-pop, lies the daily hardships and unreasonably high expectations faced by teens, irrespective of their career choices, who give CSAT when they pass high school each year. It leads to feelings of helplessness, extreme academic stress, low motivation, heavy pressure, and over-competition amongst students (Shin et al., 2018).

Even though the UK is dropping speaking tests from its GSCE examination of different languages from next year to reduce anxiety, it is still important to note that the British students, just like Indians or Koreans, have the same fear of societal judgments, career implications, and future consequences.

Tips to Reduce Exam Stress

Now that we have learned the basics of exam stress, I’d like to provide some tips to reduce stress as well, which are:

● Take breaks: Even the busiest study schedule can squeeze in a 10-minute break. Go out, drink water, play your favourite Spotify Mix Playlist. Chillax, and forget you have exams for a few minutes.

● (Not) The End of The World: Thinking about your future while preparing is legit. But overthinking about what might happen would potentially just ruin what is going on at the moment, which is your preparation for studies. So, stop spiralling into the rabbit hole and instead lock it.

● Clean and Clear: When we are trying to concentrate, it is common to be distracted by stimuli around us. So, clean up your study space. And while you’re at it, clear up your thoughts and make a proper plan of action. Instead of becoming a jack of all trades, master one topic at a time.

● ALL IS WELL: Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots pointed out that our heart is a coward and it gets scared with every little difficulty. While romanticized, it is true. Our brain has been wired by evolution to appraise the negative outcomes first. To beat it, just think of all the positive things you have achieved in your preparation. And tell your heart “All is well, all is well”, as our Mr Khan says 🙂

● Touch some grass: No, quite literally, go and sit in a garden, or cycle around. Just try going out of the house and doing some physical exercise. The more you let out that unnecessary tension by breaking a sweat, the more relaxed you’ll be, and hence more able to focus on your studies. After all, it is a proven fact that exercise does make you smarter.

In the end, I would like to add that there is nothing wrong with being stressed out about exams. Just like getting married, having kids, getting a job, or even the first day of school or college are important and stressful events in our lives, so are exams. The world is competitive and whether we like it or not, our exam grades can affect our lives. But they do so to a certain extent after which, it’s all about how we adapt to the difficulties and develop our skills. Remember, exams and grades are temporary, it is education that is permanent.