Need better ways to deal with exam stress: Experts

Bhopal: Its board exams season and several students have approached psychologists with the complaint of lacking focus, sleep disturbance, and anxiety. Teachers and psychologists suggested that parents should spend more time with the students and keep the home environment normal.
Every year lakhs of students appear for the board exams held for classes 10 and 12 spanning all schools.Given that the demand for seats in India’s best colleges far exceeds supply, the run-up to the exams is cause for significant stress for parents and students alike.
Board exams are a rite of passage for millions of young students every year and the run-up to the exams can often cause confusion and raise many questions and expectations. All this adds to students' anxiety, often amplified by well-wishers and the surrounding pressure around them. But stress and anxiety are detrimental to performance and concentration.
Experts said that both students and parents need to be mindful that there are ways to bypass this and instead embrace some smart and simple to-do approaches that can help improve exam preparations. Today, the Covid-19 scare has abated and schools are focused on making students adapt to the board exam curriculum.
Manisha Kawathekar, principal of IES Public School, said that students should not be stressed during the exams. “I have noticed that whenever exams are around students put unnecessary pressure on themselves. Parents should help their children in making the home environment in such a way that it should not create any pressure on them,” said Kawathekar.
This year CBSE has made a few changes. On this, teachers said that CBSE has provided sample papers per the exam papers' changes much earlier. “CBSE has a very systematic approach and they always ensure that students should be familiarised with the changes,” said NRIGDS principal Archana Sharma.
Psychiatrists feel that the race for admission to better colleges has become a matter of concern for class 12 students.
“Every parent knows about the potential of their children. Parents should prepare students for the exams as per the potential of the students. Besides, the preparation should have been started from the school. I have seen that several students suddenly woke up a few weeks before the exams and are now avoiding proper sleep and rest. This will end up causing more problems for them instead of helping them,” said psychiatrist Dr Satyakant Trivedi.