5 Ways to Survive School Stress
If you’re a college student, you know that this is the time of year when things start to pick up.
October starts out like September. Then, suddenly, it’s like, October 17th or 24th, you’re on the brink of November, and assignments and tests are being assigned left and right…
… and it’s like someone has pushed you off of a hill, and the brakes are broken and there’s no stopping or slowing down from here on out until the end of the semester.
After going to a rigorous high school (shout out to Winston Churchill High School for my extreme academic PTSD), college doesn’t faze me all that much – as I had to learn how to manage my time well back in my teen years.
Every semester, I watch too many of my peers let the academic stress eat away at them… so I want to share some of my tips for beating that stress.
Here are my 5 simple tips that seem miniscule, but have the potential to make a massive difference in your life cortisol-hormone-wise:
1. Practice Good Time Management
I’m going to let you in on a little secret:
College isn’t really about learning anything new.
I’m a senior, and I haven’t been taught any new material – I’ve been using what I know from high school to write papers and taking what I’ve learned in life to make insightful, erudite-like-comments in class.
The key to being successful in college is really these two things:
1. How well you can B.S. everything under the sun
2. How well you manage your time
Number one might vary on your major and levels of caring… but for me, I’ve gotten away with a lot more than I should’ve, and still gotten pretty good grades without ever cracking open a textbook…
… but number two is everything.
Like I mentioned earlier, I had to learn time management back in my teen years in order to cope with the stress of high school. If you procrastinate, and leave yourself with only an hour to write that 7-page paper that needs exactly 3.6832 sources and 2.986043 scholarly references – of course it’s going to be stressful.
What you need to do is look at your week ahead.
What is due this week? What tests do I have? Which should I do before the other? If I do ‘X’ assignment over the weekend when I am free, it will leave me with more time to study for ‘Y’ during the week.
Implementing healthy habits like this will make your coursework seem much less daunting.
Which brings me to…
2. Focus on One Assignment or Problem at a Time
Like I already mentioned, you need to look at the week ahead of you…
… which does not mean to look at the month ahead of you.
Let’s get personal as I break down to you what I have to do this month at school:
1. I have a paper due this Wednesday
2. I have a Spanish test this Friday
3. I have to teach a poetry lecture for a class next Tuesday
4. I have to recite a poem from memory in two and a half weeks
5. I have to read Lord of the Rings
6. I probably have a lot of other readings and little assignments due in between
7. I probably have a lot of other things that either haven’t been assigned yet or I don’t know exist yet even though they’re somewhere in my email that I either haven’t opened, or read it, and completely forgot about it.
Yeah… that sounds like a lot when I list it all at once, doesn’t it?
But if you don’t want to let stress eat away at you, you can’t bite off more than you can chew.
I’m not thinking about that poem or that lecture yet… I’m thinking about this week. I wrote my paper due on Wednesday this past weekend so I can study for my Spanish test throughout the week. I didn’t let myself begin the study guide for Spanish until I finished the paper first.
Just like life, you need to take school and its tedious assignments one day at a time.
3. Sleep, Eat, and Hydrate
Yeah yeah yeah. You’re thinking,
“Stephanie, this is something I’ve heard a million times before…”
But you want to know one of the reasons why I’ve always been (if I do say so myself) a pretty good student?
I sleep! I eat! I drink water and not just coffee!
I promise you, 75.76543% (if not more) of the battle of thriving in school is just showing up and being attentive in class. If you’re alert, participating, and thoroughly absorbing the material being taught – then you should not have to cram so hard for the exam itself… because you’ve been learning it little by little all along.
You might think this is an overrated tip, but you wouldn’t believe how many college kids I see eating Ritz crackers and Cheetos from the vending machine as a meal alongside functioning off of under 5 hours of sleep.
If you take care of yourself, nurture your body with what it needs… your mental capacity will flourish, as well.
4. Give Yourself Incentives for Completing Work
This sounds like a tactic used on children, but hey… it works.
I remember one night the summer I was turning 16 and taking SAT prep courses at night, I had a piece of strawberry shortcake waiting in the fridge for me when I came back home after taking a practice test.
This past weekend, after writing my paper – I rewarded myself with some chocolate.
As a foodie with a sweet-tooth: an edible treat is often my reward, but maybe for you – it’s something different! Maybe you want to be rewarded with a binge marathon after your exam, or with a night out with friends.
Whatever it is, make sure you give yourself something to look forward to after you finish the thing that you’ve been fretting over all week.
5. Relax, Eat a Good Dinner, & Watch a Movie
Again, I know what you’re thinking.
“Stephanie… shouldn’t I be studying as much as I can the night before my exam?!”
Here’s my answer for you:
No, no… and no.
Cramming the night before an exam is not going to help you.
My advice is to follow the steps above, and if you have – you’ve practiced good time management, and you’ve studied bits and pieces throughout the week.
The last night before an exam should be a light review. Look over your notes or quizzes or whatever one last time, then pop on a movie, eat one of your favorite meals, and then get. some. rest.
There is such a thing as over studying. If you go to sleep feeling at ease, chances are: you’ll wake up that same way, and feel less anxious about the exam you’re about to go take.
In all, stress is a part of life: it’s inevitable. What is interchangeable, is the way you approach said stress.
Remember, life is going to knock you down sometimes…
… but it’s important that you don’t let it keep you down.
You have the power to get back up. School, studying, homework – it’s all so temporary. Use these experiences as building blocks that will help you manage other tense times in your life that are yet to occur.
Once you start to view school that way...
… you’ll suddenly feel the weight (of over-priced textbooks) lift off of your shoulders.
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