Stress is one of the largest contributors to poor academic performance across the globe. Students often feel anxious or uneasy because their grades don’t live up to expectations.
This creates a vicious cycle where the student’s poor grades amp up anxiety levels, leading to worse performance in subsequent tests.
Stress Management Techniques
Following a few stress management techniques can significantly boost student mental health and help fight anxiety in the student community, and have a positive impact on grades as a result.
8 Effective exam stress management strategies
- Clear your surroundings
- Reduce sugar consumption
- Get enough sleep
- Exercise regularly
- Ask for help
- Take regular breaks
- Time management
- Listen to music
Clear your surroundings
Studies have shown that clutter in your workspace can distract and confuse your brain, keeping you from achieving peak productivity. Ensuring your work environment is in order can help you think and perform better.
Reduce sugar consumption
Sugar is often referred to as “the white death” – due to its unhealthy nature and unfavorable effects on the mind and the body. Drinks with high sugar and caffeine content are extremely popular amongst students as they provide a short-term energy boost coveted by students. However, this is detrimental to mental and physical health in the long run.
Get enough sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep is a surefire way students can relieve stress. Sleeping for 7-9 hours every night can significantly reduce stress and anxiety levels. Getting onto a regular sleep cycle is extremely beneficial and helps fine-tune your internal body clock. This provides your brain with an adequate amount of rest and enhancing mental capacity after a hard day’s work.
Exercise regularly
Exercise can help keep your brain refreshed and active, according to research. This can also increase the body’s production of endorphins, which act as painkillers and also double as sleep enhancers, which lead to lower stress levels, improving performance.
Ask for help
Most students shy away from asking for help when they need it, which is extremely counter-intuitive and disadvantageous for the student. If you need the help of any kind, do not hesitate to reach out to your teachers, friends, or parents. Chances are they may have faced similar difficulties and could have some helpful tips for you.
Take regular breaks
This is probably one of the most important tips on this list. Most students tend to keep studying till their brain hurts. An admirable, but nonetheless, fruitless trait. The quality of work done in such situations gradually decreases as more time passes. Instead, a better approach is to take a short break every hour or so to relax your mind and give it a chance to recuperate.
Time management
Nine out of ten student issues arise from poor time management. Creating a daily plan outlining all the tasks you have to finish can help improve your performance. Adhering to the schedule requires effort, and it may help to put the schedule in the hands of a teacher or parent so they can help monitor your progress and guide you if you fall behind. Managing time effectively is one of the key habits to a greater level of success.
Listen to music
Listening to music is one of the greatest stress-busting activities known to the human race. Soft, calming music can relax your brain and lower stress levels, allowing you to perform at peak capacity. Softer music has been shown to have a more significant impact on stress than louder songs.
Following these guidelines can help reduce stress and allow students to get better grades.
Also published on Medium.