Exam stress, how do we avoid it in Casvi Tres Cantos?

The end of the school year is coming and with it the exams. Exam stress at Casvi Tres Cantos is a reality. “Between 15 and 25% of the students suffer high levels of anxiety before the evaluations”, says the psychology teacher Giuseppe Iadolo.

What causes this stress, which students are most prone to it, how can it be avoided, and, above all, how do we deal with it? And, above all, how do we do it at Casvi Tres Cantos?

Why does stress arise in the face of exams?

Anxiety is a reaction to something stressful. In this specific case to exams. It affects the body and the mind, because when a person is under stress, adrenaline is released, which prepares the person to react to possible dangers. The symptoms it generates are obvious: sweating, accelerated breathing and heart rate. Often, students feed this stress with negative thoughts such as going blank or thinking about the difficulty of the exam.

As Elena Gallegos, a therapist at UNINPSI, says, people who tend to worry about things or are very perfectionist are more likely to suffer from exam stress. It can also be experienced by students who have not prepared for the exam, but want to do well.

Fernando Miralles, professor at CEU San Pablo University, explains in an analysis that the problem lies in the fact that society demands more and more from people. “In high school, students already have to decide what they want to do in the future, so the stress starts earlier”.

Other strategies to reduce stress in exams at Casvi Tres Cantos

• Learn to study effectively. At Casvi Tres Cantos we teach students study techniques and strategies to take exams from a very early age.
• Study with time. It is better to study little by little than to study everything at once. Learning to plan our time is key to academic success.
• Do not ignore learning difficulties. It is necessary to adapt the measures of access to evaluation, taking into account the individual characteristics of each student, whether learning difficulties, emotional disorders or Attention Deficit Disorder. This will help students to face exams with more confidence. This work is carried out in a collaborative way between the Guidance Department and the teaching staff of Casvi Tres Cantos.