According to the Global Competitiveness report 2018, Costa Rica ranks second among the most competitive countries in Latin America (right after Chile). The educational system is labeled as “high quality,” and it’s one of the factors that contribute towards the high ranking.
The five public universities in the country impose high standards, which impose a lot of stress on students. But before they get to university, the students go through high school stress, too.
School-related stress is a serious thing. It gets students to the point of a mental, emotional, and even physical meltdown. When they are under exam, class, and homework stress, they have a problem to complete all tasks without breaking under the pressure.
It’s time to shed some light on this issue.
Why Does School Cause Such Levels of Stress?
All students feel the pressure of education under a very young age. As soon as they start school, their academic gains are being measured. They compare themselves to other students and they think less of themselves if they don’t achieve great results.
By the time they are in high school, they already start stressing about university. They have to work on their grades if they want to get into a competitive Costa Rican university. And when they finally get to university level, the stress levels become unbearable.
The lectures start early in the day and usually wrap up in the afternoon. The student has time for lunch and a brief rest. After that, they immediately start working on homework assignments. The schedule is packed and they have to write several projects by very close deadlines. Many students decide to get assignment writing help at this point, since the demands are extreme and there’s not enough time to complete every single paper.
Then the student has to cover some of the exam material. If they procrastinate, exam week is going to be a complete disaster. Binge studying is not only stressful, but also leads to short-term results. To remember information on the long run, the student has to study a bit on a daily basis.
Should we even mention social life? That’s a stressful aspect of university studies, too. The student has a lot of responsibility regarding the studies, but they also feel pressured by their peers. Everyone invites them to parties, so they can’t skip on an opportunity to look cool.
When all this comes together, we can’t deny the fact that stress is a major part of a student’s life. One study showed that stress adversely influences the overall life satisfaction of a college student.
Tips: How to Deal with Stress at School
You’re already a student and you decided to persist throughout the entire educational journey. What can you do about the stress that became an inevitable part of your life?
1. Recognize the Signs
Do you know how to recognize stress-related behaviors? Maybe you snap out on your friends or family. Maybe you cut yourself out of all social situations. You feel desperate or hopeless. Procrastination is also a sign of stress.
Be aware of all your actions and thoughts. When you realize that you’re stressed, acknowledge that fact. That’s your first step towards proper management.
2. Always Make Plans
You get one assignment after another, so it’s easy to forget some of them. Use a calendar app to mark the deadlines. Then, plan the development of each assignment across several days prior to its deadline. Set the app to notify you at least a week before the deadline of an important project.
When you have a plan and you stick to it, nothing can surprise you. The stress levels will immediately go down.
3. Acknowledge Your Limits
Your professors expect you to push your limits and achieve more. That’s why they assign challenging projects and more exam material. The problem is that each professor believes they teach the most important subject. So they all raise their expectations. They drive you to the point of burnout.
What if you realize that you can’t achieve everything no matter what? That’s the time when you should ask for assistance. You can hire a tutor to help with the exam material, or a writer/editor to help with the assignments.
There’s No Way to Eliminate Stress from a Student’s Life, but Management Is Possible
These three steps are essential in stress management: recognize the symptoms, make plans, and know the limits that show it’s time to get help.
No matter how hard you try to plan all steps and put stress under control, it will still be there. Stress has a positive effect on you, too. When you’re under such a state, you can’t relax and you push yourself to do more work. That’s how you should see it. Don’t get stressed because you’re stressed; take it as a positive thing when it’s in normal doses.
Still, you shouldn’t allow it to get out of hand.
BIO:
Alvin Franklin set a personal goal to complete as many online degree programs as possible during the lifetime. Currently, he is taking psychology courses. He writes blog posts to share the things he learned and inspire people to commit themselves to life-long studying.
