Sources: CNBC, Purdue University, The Jed Foundation, Edutopia, NHS, Verywellmind.com
Stress is a normal human reaction, and isn't necessarily bad for us. It can motivate us to reach our goals and keep us on track, as long the level of stress is at an acceptable level. As that level of stress rises, it can lead to anxiety, worry, and is proven to lead to impaired academic performance. Part of the formative high school preparation for college is learning how to handle stress, especially since being an adult encompasses so much more than academics.
In both high school and college, there are many sources for academic stress, whether that be scholarships, preparing for future academic careers, or even familial pressure to do well. It's important to know that these experiences are very common, and everyone feels stress at some point in their life. Research shows that when we feel overpowering pressure connected with school it not only demotivates us to accomplish the work, it decreases our general motivation and can increase the rate of dropping out. Also, it can lead to depression, , bad sleep, substance misuse, and anxiety.
Additionally, this study found that students who experience academic "failures" feel a spike in cortisol (a stress hormone), but then later recover after their cortisol gradually declines. Students who cannot regulate their cortisol and who let these setbacks affect them struggle to move on, hence leading to poorer academic performance. According to Edutopia, "Students who believed that intelligence can be developed—a growth mindset—were more likely to see setbacks as temporary, and not only had lower overall cortisol levels but were able to return to lower levels shortly after a setback. Students who believed that intelligence is fixed, on the other hand, maintained high cortisol level for longer, said researchers—a stress response that tends to depress problem solving and intellectual flexibility."
Luckily for us, there are actionable things that we can do to help us identify stressors as well as ease them.
According to the Jed Foundation, some questions to ask yourself include:
"Is it a particular class or type of work?
Is it an issue of time management and prioritization?
Do you have too much on your plate?
Is it due to family expectations or financial obligations?
Pinpoint how that stress is affecting you:
Is the stress preventing you from sleeping?
Is it making you take longer to do the work or paralyzing you from even starting?
Is it causing you to feel anxious, unwell, or depressed?"
As I have spoken about before, math is a subject that, while interesting, also gave me a lot of anxiety and stress. It was the subject that could make me question my whole academic career, and led to immense worrying, which only contributed to worse grades. I noticed that as soon as I learned to manage this stress and trust myself after my hard preparation, I would perform much better.
If you feel that you were in a similar situation like me, where the stress seemed to come from overthinking, know that you are trustworthy. Things like self affirmation and being able to remind yourself that you ARE prepared will help you on your next test, even if it seems cheesy in the moment.
The key takeaway here is that while stress can be handled temporarily with stress-relieving techniques, the main way to conquer academic stress is to have a growth mindset by focusing on overcoming the obstacle.
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