With final Year 12 exams starting this week, many students are experiencing unhealthy levels of exam stress.
According to research from mental health service ReachOut, 88% of young people surveyed experienced study stress in the last 12 months, while 17% indicated that study stress had a major impact on their wellbeing or their mental health.
Clinical Lead at youth mental health service ReachOut, Linda Williams, is a Senior Psychologist with more than a decade of experience working across telephone and digital mental health services. She said ReachOut’s data shows that the cost of living is contributing to exam stress for students.
“They are worried about getting jobs, being able to lead the lives they had planned and balancing study with work,” she said. “Exams are usually stressful, and these extra pressures can sometimes make exams feel overwhelming, with impacts on mental health and academic performance.”
Williams said the basics like getting enough sleep, eating well and taking regular breaks can make all the difference.
“Students should seek support if they feel they need it, including from a trusted adult, their GP or a service like ReachOut.”
Dr Mackenzie, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and a researcher in the Centre for Educational Research at Western Sydney University, says maintaining healthy and effective study habits is also important in the lead up to final exams.
“It can be tempting to stay up late studying, but this is counterproductive because not getting enough sleep reduces the effectiveness of your study – both that day and the next,” Dr MacKenzie said.
“Study that includes practice questions, is spaced out over time, and focuses on different subjects for short periods can be particularly effective.”
Sometimes, it’s the little things that can help the most
Dr Michelle Kennedy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Thompson Institute, where she’s been studying stress and anxiety in young school students. Dr Kennedy says during the exam period, non-verbal gestures and support are often the most effective as students will be more reactive than normal.
“Things such as bringing a meal, providing a cool drink, providing a heat pad to place over their stomachs to settle nerves,” Dr Kennedy told The Educator. “These are little things that can help.”
For students, Dr Kennedy said it’s a firstly a matter of recognising when you’re experiencing heightened anxiety, and then trying to employ strategies to help manage it.
“When students experience heightened anxiety, certain parts of the brain that support the recall of information required for exams may not function effectively. When this occurs students may become more anxious and have difficulty changing out of this state,” Dr Kennedy said.
“It’s important to remember that some of these strategies will work for some, and not for others.
There are other pathways
John Fischetti is a Professor of Leadership and School Transformation at the University of Newcastle, said students needn’t be too worried about their final exams, as early entry schemes make the testing system “obsolete”.
“This is because our top students are already awarded placements into their degrees of choice before they sit the exams,” Professor Fischetti told The Educator. “This allows us to change the senior years of high school to be much more learning- based than testing-based.”
What’s more, says Professor Fischetti, most year 12 students don’t use an ‘ATAR’ based on their examination scores now to gain admission to university.
“Most are admitted through early offers, go through a TAFE or enabling pathway, or come back to university as mature-age adults. As many as 25% leave school and do not ‘finish’. So, the examination process is no longer the preferred pathway,” he said.
“We have entire brands of schools whose intellectual property is providing high test scores, and they will push back to the Ministers until the next generation of stressed-out young people say, ‘no more,’ and more and more families leave the system that is wearing their children out.”