Managing Exam Stress Essays
Define stress: Stress is the body's natural response to a threatening situation, and stress causes the
release of hormones such as adrenaline, that prepare the body for its instinctual response to a threat:
flight, fight or freeze. The adrenaline causes processes in your body to change, for example, your
breathing and heart rate quicken, your senses sharpen, muscles tighten and your blood pressure is
raised. These changes allow your reaction time to increase, which could mean the difference between
life and death. However, many people, including students, live in stressful situations every day, and
this has a negative effect of their health.
Factors causing exam–related stress: One of the main causes of exam–related stress is the...show
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There is a fear of disappointing a person such as a family member with poor academic results from
exams, or not being accepted into a tertiary institution. This fear motivates the student to do well, but
also creates stress because of the thought of not achieving top marks or being rejected from their
ideal university because of low exam results.
Inadequate exam preparation is a major cause of exam–related stress because the student feels like
there isn't enough time to study everything, and so they lose sleep because of worry or studying late
into the night. There are feelings of despondency and a sense of being overwhelmed by the amount
of work to study. Also, last minute studying lowers the chance of the facts being remembered, which
increases anxiety and stress during exam time. A lack of sleep before an exam, as well as not
having a proper breakfast or vitamin supplement also increases stress levels because the student is
tired, irritable, worried and the student's immune system weakens during stressful times such as
exams, increasing their chance of getting sick.
Learners' responses to exam situations: Nicky Hayes, the editor of Foundations of Psychology, says
that common responses to "exam stress" include disturbed sleep patterns, tiredness, worry, irregular
eating habits, increased infections because of a lowered immune system, and an inability to
concentrate. This is due to the increased amount of adrenaline being released into the body.
Indecisiveness,
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