Stress helps kids nail exams
End-of-year nerves can increase oxygen to the brain and improve attention, focus, energy and determination
Two-thirds of young people experience levels of exam stress that mental health organisation ReachOut describes as “worrying”.
Research shows high levels of exam stress can interfere with attention and reduce working memory, leading to lower performance. Early experiences of anxiety and stress can also set a precedent for mental-health problems in adulthood.
But how we see stress can actually make a difference to the way it affects us. Research shows if we believe stress is a helpful response that will increase our performance in a challenging event, it can be a tool that works to our advantage.
Stress is a normal experience when we have a challenging event. We can experience stress when learning
● November 8-December 3. All NCEA (levels 1-3) and NZ Scholarship exams are three hours.
All are either 9.30am or 2pm.
something new, starting a new job or being in a race.
Our experience of “stress” is actually our body getting us ready to take on the challenge. A stress response is helpful as it can increase oxygen to the brain and improve attention, focus, energy and determination.
The runner in a race needs to be
“stressed” to compete successfully. The young person sitting in an exam room needs it too.
Exams are often treated as a threat because there is potential harm or loss related to our self-worth, identity, and commitments, goals and dreams. If we fail, we think we are a failure and we may never get the future we had hoped for. Our whole life is at stake.
In a study from the United States, one group of young people were given information about stress before sitting an exam. The reading material explained stress was not harmful, but that it had evolved to help us cope and perform better. Another group were told to just ignore stress and suppress their emotions.
Researchers found the first group performed significantly better in the exam (average five marks improvement) than the group who used the ignore-and-relax approach.
In another study of exam stress, students who saw stress as an opportunity and used it for self-growth had increased performance and decreased emotional exhaustion. But students who saw stress as a threat showed decreased effort and performance.
● Mandie Shean is a lecturer at the School of Education, Edith Cowan University, Perth