Students are highly conscious about their future these days. They want to give their best in every exam from the early years of their school. With this, exam stress becomes highly prevalent among today’s students. It’s true that a little amount of stress can keep students motivated. But, exam stress becomes a concern when it starts impacting the mental health or overall well-being of a child. In such a situation, parents and teachers must understand that they have a significant role to play.
Some top schools in Bangalore and other cities even focus on students’ stress management. This should be applied in every educational institution to ensure that students are mentally fine and doing well in their lives as a whole:
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Understanding Exam Stress
As per a survey by NCERT, there is genuine exam anxiety in 80% of students. It not only impacts their studies, but can also affect their habits and health. They may experience loss of appetite, sleep schedule changes, high or low blood pressure, etc. Students are most likely having mood swings during their exams. But instead of getting frustrated with their behaviour, parents and teachers need to support them and help them manage stress.
Strategies for Parents
In order to make sure that a child feels confident during his/her examinations and is not so stressed that it impacts his/her life, parents can follow the below-mentioned strategies:
1. Creating a Supportive Environment at Home
The environment of your house plays a vital role in determining how your child feels during his/her exams. Make sure that your home has a positive environment. The room or place where your child studies should be peaceful and must have minimal distractions.
But also, keep in mind that they don’t feel isolated from the rest of the house. Let them study for as long as they want to, but make sure to ask them if they want something or if they want to join everyone else in the house to take a break.
2. Effective Communication and Emotional Support
Parents need to understand that their child needs emotional support from them during their exams. As parents, you might have expectations with them and there is nothing wrong in that. But when exams are near, make sure that you communicate to your child about how they feel instead of just reminding them of your expectations.
Ask if they have any fears or if they feel anxious. By doing this, you can make them feel light by hearing them and communicating with them. Let your kids know that you support them and you are with them no matter what.
3. Teaching Stress Management Techniques
Parents can also help their children manage stress by teaching them about stress management techniques like yoga, mind exercises, morning or evening walks, etc. If your child doesn’t show interest in these activities, you can even start doing these things with them. Indulge in a 10-minute yoga session or meditate with them for a few minutes before they go to study. Be your child’s stress management companion and make them feel positive during exams.
Strategies for Teachers
Not only parents, but teachers can also help their students manage exam stress in many ways. This is what the teachers of the best international schools in Bangalore are already doing. Here are some strategies that teachers can follow:
1. Creating a Supportive Classroom Environment
It is the responsibility of every teacher to create a positive environment in class by making every child feel confident and motivated. This can be done by encouraging open conversation in the classroom. Every child should be comfortable asking questions when they need to. Also, teachers should tell students about the real significance of exams and ensure that children know that exams are not everything.
2. Implementing Effective Teaching Strategies
Effective teaching strategies, like explaining topics with real-life examples, doing multiple revisions before exams, and introducing the most important topics for exams, can reduce stress levels in students to a great extent. By ensuring that every single student understands the concepts and talking politely to them, teachers can encourage happy and stress-free learning among their students.
3. Identifying and Addressing Individual Needs
Another essential factor to keep in mind for teachers is to understand and address the needs of every single student. Many teachers often overlook students who talk less in the classroom. With this, those students lose their confidence over time and hesitate to ask questions. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, teachers can provide equal question opportunities to every student by calling out their names in the classroom. This will encourage children to ask their doubts, which further increases their confidence and reduces stress levels.
Final Take
Exam stress can be worse at times, especially if students don’t receive any support from their parents or teachers. Students may have some changes in their behaviour during exams, but parents need to be patient and communicate with them at such times. Even teachers play a significant role here.
By fostering a positive environment at home and implementing effective strategies in the classroom, parents and teachers respectively can ensure that students are not over-stressed. Top schools in Bangalore like GIIS Bangalore put special emphasis on student stress management by encouraging open communication in classrooms and incorporating other effective strategies
