How to deal with school stress: Tips from someone with experience
By Lela S. </3
There’s eleven minutes, now ten, until the deadline for submitting your essay: 12:00 AM, October 1. You’ve written a number of “drafts” that were erased, rewritten, and erased once again. The page is covered with smudges and tears from your vicious eraser rubbing. Your palms are sweaty from all the writing you’ve done, but you’ve gone no further in your progress.
You’re tearing out your hair. Your knees are weak, your arms heavy, you can’t take it anymore. You’ve tried everything, searched up some essays to copy from (but found out that plagiarism is bad), tried to cheat, but NOTHING worked. You’ve never been stressed in ANYTHING involving writing before. I mean, you’re the Chief Executive Author of an ultra-popular kids newspaper!
THEN WHY ARE YOU SO STRESSED FOR A SIMPLE 150-WORD ENTRY ESSAY FOR YOUR SCHOOL’S NEWSPAPER?*
This article will be giving YOU advice on how to beat school-related stress.
Some signs of school stress:
You might be losing touch with friends. Always saying “no” in response to “wanna call”.
You might be feeling moody and low. Crying yourself to sleep, etc.
You could feel confused, have trouble making decisions, or have a lack of motivation to do anything and frequently ask “what do I do now?”
You might be feeling overwhelmed because of all the work you’re doing.
You might have trouble sleeping, or trouble getting out of bed. This could be because of not having enough sleep (enough sleep = 10-12 hours for kids, 9-11 hours for tweens, 10-12 hours for teens)
You could have tense muscles or headaches. The tense muscles could come from overworking yourself, and the headaches could come from having not enough sleep.
You might have an upset stomach, or feel sick. This could also be from overworking yourself or not sleeping enough.
You might fidget, nail bite, or grind your teeth. This naturally comes from nervousness.
Why might you experience school stress:
You might be worried you might fail a certain subject.
You might be pressured by your parents to perform really well.
You might pressure yourself to get a certain result (for example, 100%)
You might find it hard to understand the material, but you’re scared to ask questions
You might feel the need to compete/compare yourself with others
You might feel like you aren’t prepared and there’s a deadline, and you might not do well
You might have other things happening in your life.
SO HOW DO YOU PREVENT SCHOOL STRESS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Find a quiet place to study without distractions. I wouldn’t recommend the dining room, because even though you can talk to your family if you need help, it’s very noisy. That’s why I set up a work area in my basement so I could work more peacefully.
Set up your study space in an organized fashion (mine is the cover photo of the linked article). You’ll need a neat and tidy space to work in if you want to be more productive. Having an aesthetic space is an optional but recommended bonus, as it will relax you.
Find out as much as you can about the subject, as soon as you can. It’s always best to be prepared beforehand. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, it’s highly encouraged in every subject. You also have Google if you’re more of the shy type.
Make aesthetic notes and mind maps to study. As well as being pleasing to the eyes, aesthetic notes and mind maps are much more efficient ways of studying than, for example, recopying your notes, or even just re-reading your textbooks.
Make a plan about what you want to do in each study session. Some people think it’s time-consuming, but it’s only a nuisance if you want it to. Simply make a to-do checklist, and start studying.
Use the Pomodoro Method to study. Using twenty-five minute concentrated work sessions, with short five-minute breaks in between, it’s the most effective study method. Use an app such as pomofocus.io to enhance your tomato time.
Follow these back-to-school tips that will help you.
How to make an exam day go smoothly:
Work out what you need to bring with you to the exam beforehand, so you don’t forget any important materials at home the day of the exam.
Eat a good, light, healthy breakfast, which helps with your concentration.
Go to the bathroom before the exam starts for obvious reasons.
If you find yourself getting worried right before the exam, do a quick, discreet Mindfulness session on your Apple Watch. It only takes one minute. Don’t get caught!
Skim through your exam paper at the start, so you know what kind of questions you’ll be dealing with.
Then, read through your exam paper very carefully. Underline key terms and instructions so you don’t misunderstand or forget anything. (This is something I MUST remember to do…)
And that’s it! If this article helped you, feel free to drop a like and/or a comment in the newspaper, we would really appreciate it!
*Yes, the reason why this situation sounds so specific, is because it’s happening, except there’s eleven days left for me to write the essay instead of eleven minutes. Yes, I’m still scared of being rejected from my school’s newspaper, even though I have no reason to. Hopefully re-reading my article will help. Wish me luck!
Time for me to start writing that essay…