Survey Results For Mental Health During Exam Season
Being in college can come with its fair share of stress; most students can agree that one of the toughest parts of the school year is exam season. In order to find out why exam season is so stress-inducing, I decided to survey CNC students and see what they think.
Not only is studying incredibly stressful, but many students think this time of year can be time-consuming; over half of the students surveyed are taking four exams or more, which can be overwhelming when trying to divide their time and attention evenly between classes and their workloads.
Students have a variety of of ways to combat stress and anxiety during exam season; methods as simple as sleeping, spending time with friends and family, and investing time into hobbies can help lessen the stress and high tension that comes with exam season. A few students pointed out that it’s tricky to try and balance their time between studying and relaxing without feeling like they’re being unproductive.
However, on a scale from 1 through 5, 63.6% of the students surveyed described their self care habits as a 2; many students may not be able to take the time to de-stress from the pressure that exam season piles onto them.
Exam season was especially impacted by Covid-19; 36.4% of the students surveyed found that exam season has only gotten more stressful since the pandemic. Having to abruptly adjust to alternative exam methods during the pandemic was stressful for students, and that stress could be accentuated now that exams have mostly switched back to being in person.
Many classes at CNC have a final project in place of an exam; however, those could be just as time-consuming as exams. With such a limited time frame to complete projects, students often feel overwhelmed and are pressured into prioritizing certain projects over others. While projects are a potential alternative to exams, they tend to be just as stressful.
Exam season will always be stressful to an extent, but hopefully we can work as a school and community towards making that time of year a little less stressful and hectic in the future.
