Do you struggle with stress? Are finals
getting to you? Truth is you are not the only one. Stress is an inevitable
problem throughout life, especially in the life of a college student. Many
students and teachers across the University of Mississippi’s campus struggle
with the issues of stress and anxiety around finals week.
In the dictionary stress is defined as
being a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse
or very demanding circumstances. The good news is that there are many programs
throughout campus that have been created to help students deal with different
forms of stress. The Counseling Center on campus is one organization that has
many programs to help students over come these struggles.
One of these programs is called “Stress
Less Week.” This program is fairly new within the last four years and was
started because the Counseling center encountered many students who struggling
with stress. Amber McDowell a Graduate Assistant at the Counseling center
believes that this is an engaging way to help students through a stressful
time. While the program is normally held the week of spring semester finals
there were several activities this past week. One such activity is called
“Pet-a-puppy.” For this activity puppies were brought to the J.D Williams Library on December 8th.
When asked how petting puppies eases stress McDowell said, “Humans
recognize a dog as something that needs love and nurture; when humans pet and
play with dogs, they forget about their own needs and worries and focus their
attention on those of the dog.”
For students who think that stress and
anxiety only affect them, think again. Caroline Williams, an English Teacher
Assistant here at the University struggled her way through Harvard University
gives this advice to students, “Finals are the one thing during the semester
that seems to sneak up on us, don’t let them! Plan ahead, make study guides,
and go to extra help sessions. I think that the most detrimental thing to do
before an exam is not sleeping the night before. If you start studying in small
increments you wont have to cram all night and you may actually remember all
this stuff in the long run”
With basic stress around finals weeks
many students also struggle with test anxiety. Test anxiety is a feeling of
sudden panic before a test, sometimes impeding a students’ ability to remember
all that they studied. Professor Stephen W. White, a Psychology teacher at the
university spoke briefly about how students should handle test anxiety. There
is a series of steps that students can go through if having these feelings of
discomfort, first they can contact the Student Disabilities Service to obtain
proper documentation and further steps of action to take. White then said that
most students don’t see these needs as legitimate disabilities, but he is happy
to accommodate them in any way that he can. “On average I have from 2 to 3% of
students go through the proper channels and contact the Student Disabilities
Services about their issues.” White said. He went on to give this advice to
students,
“An
interesting new study by two University of Chicago professors demonstrates an
easy and effective technique for minimizing test anxiety. In 2011, Ramirez
& Beilock showed that students suffering from stress/anxiety who take 10
minutes before the exam to write openly (meaning being honest) about their
thoughts and feelings regarding the exam showed better performance (5% increase
in exam scores) versus students who did not engage in the writing task (they
actually showed a 12% decline in test scores). So take ten minutes before an exam (or any event that
promotes stress) and write down why this exam or event makes you
stressed/nervous/anxious. The key is to be honest with yourself.”
For students who wish to take
their problems to the Students Disabilities Services office they can be
contacted here about a process for documentation.
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