25 Feb Part 1: Managing Exam Stress – What is Stress?

Many students experience some pre-exam jitters. Mild nervousness can motivate you to do your best.

The kids who are in Grade 12, they have intense social pressure to perform well. Many feel like their entire life depends on their Year 12 results, but those of us who’ve been through it know there’s life after.

In this 5 Post series, I’m going to take you through all the details on what is Stress? Its signs and a lot of tips, tricks and techniques to manage your mind.

What is Stress?

Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give people more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength.

What Causes Stress?

Many different things can cause stress — from physical (such as fear of something dangerous) to emotional (such as worry over your family or job.) Identifying what may be causing you stress is often the first step in learning how to better deal with your stress. Some of the most common sources of stress are:

Survival Stress – You may have heard the phrase “fight or flight” before. This is a common response to danger in all people and animals. When you are afraid that someone or something may physically hurt you, your body naturally responds with a burst of energy so that you will be better able to survive the dangerous situation (fight) or escape it all together (flight). This is survival stress.

Internal Stress – Have you ever caught yourself worrying about things you can do nothing about or worrying for no reason at all? This is internal stress and it is one of the most important kinds of stress to understand and manage. Internal stress is when people make themselves stressed. This often happens when we worry about things we can’t control or put ourselves in situations we know will cause us stress. Some people become addicted to the kind of hurried, tense, lifestyle that results from being under stress. They even look for stressful situations and feel stress about things that aren’t stressful.

Environmental Stress – This is a response to things around you that cause stress, such as noise, crowding, and pressure from work or family. Identifying these environmental stresses and learning to avoid them or deal with them will help lower your stress level.

Fatigue and Overwork – This kind of stress builds up over a long time and can take a hard toll on your body. It can be caused by working too much or too hard at your job(s), school, or home. It can also be caused by not knowing how to manage your time well or how to take time out for rest and relaxation. This can be one of the hardest kinds of stress to avoid because many people feel this is out of their control. Later in this course we will show you that you DO have options and offer some useful tips for dealing with fatigue.

HOW DO YOU RECOGNISE UNPRODUCTIVE STRESS?

If you are:

• Sleeping badly
• Feeling irritable about themselves or those around
• Having troubles concentrating
• Having issues connecting with others
• Feeling panicky or down
• Appearing disengaged in class
• Avoiding school (absenteeism)
• Being defeatist (what’s the point?).

If you display any of these signs, it is a good indicator you need to work some stress relief tactics into your exam preparation (or I would say life in general).

In the next few posts you’ll learn some simple and most productive tactics to manage your stress.