There is no question that students today are under stress. Stress can come from many sources. Academic stress, or school stress, can certainly be one of those sources. Students are continually being tested on both state exams and local school and class exams. These exams are definitely a contributing factor to academic stress.
Sometimes anxiety can be a good thing. It can be a motivating factor in terms of performance. However, when there is too much anxiety, it may become a negative factor and affect a student’s ability to do well. Anxiety can take over and affect the student’s ability to recall information or pay attention or stay focused. When this happens, grades become affected.
Anxiety can also affect students’ emotions, causing them to become withdrawn, angry, scared or sad. Physical symptoms also can be a sign of anxiety. Symptoms such as nausea, headaches, stomachaches or sleepiness can be caused by academic stress as well.
Younger children dealing with Common Core exams have a hard time because they don’t know how to handle stress and they don’t have a lot of practice. Older children dealing with SATs, ACTs, midterms and finals also have a difficult time dealing with the stress because they know a lot is riding on their scores.
An academic counselor is a trained professional that can help both parents and students with techniques to better cope with academic stress and anxiety. With skill-building and anxiety-alleviating techniques, students can be better prepared, have more self-confidence and achieve better grades.
For more information, contact Paulette Nadel, Ed.D., at 516-445-2104 or [email protected], or visit TestStressHelp.com.
