effect of exam stress on children

 The increasing pressure on children to excel academically has led to a concerning trend known as exam phobia, where students experience significant anxiety and stress surrounding examinations. This pressure often stems from high expectations set by parents and teachers, a competitive education system, and societal comparisons. fear of failure can manifest in various ways, including nervousness, lack of appetite, and poor performance.

Key Causes of Exam Stress:

1. Pressure for Good Grades: Students feel compelled to achieve high marks to meet parental and societal expectations.
2. High Expectations: Parents often push their children to outperform peers, leading to anxiety.
3. Competitiveness: The education system emphasizes grades over holistic development, creating a stressful environment.
4. Fear of Rejection and Ridicule: Children worry about disappointing their parents, teachers, and peers, which exacerbates their anxiety.

Impact on Children:

• Physical Symptoms: Stress leads to insomnia, loss of appetite, and increased nervousness.
• Mental Health: Prolonged anxiety may result in depression and decreased self-esteem.
• Academic Performance: Ironically, the stress can hinder students' ability to perform well in exams.

Strategies to Overcome Exam Phobia:

1. Systematic Preparation: Children should create a structured study schedule, starting with subjects they find most challenging.
2. Positive Reinforcement: Parents and teachers should encourage a growth mindset, emphasizing that failure is a part of learning, not a defeat.
3. Practice and Familiarization: Solving previous years' question papers can help students feel more prepared and reduce anxiety.
4. Emotional Support: Parents should offer unconditional support, reassuring children that they will not face punishment for poor performance.

Role of Parents:

Parents play a crucial role in alleviating exam stress. By fostering a supportive environment, encouraging their children, and helping them develop effective study habits, parents can significantly enhance their children's confidence and performance.

Conclusion:

The key to overcoming exam phobia lies in addressing the root causes of stress and fostering a supportive atmosphere that prioritizes learning and personal growth over mere grades. By doing so, children can approach exams with confidence and resilience, ultimately achieving success in both academics and life.

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Exams fear PARENT & CHILDRENS

Exams induced changes in parents
1)worry among parents to see their children with higher marks than other children, the worry starts as a twitch changes to tension and its continuity becomes stress , it alters into emotional(voilent) burst.

2)As a part of the above creates a problem for him in his routine job. comes homes initiates his child for what he has thought.

3)slowly pressure which was build in the parents gets transfared to the children in the form of sending them to tutions for the subjects where he scores low.

4)As a part of the procedure the father initialy wakes up and takes his child to the tutions.

5) As the time goes on it becomes difficult for him because he has to look after his job also simultaneously and has to handle the stress of his job also.

6) Due to the above entire process series of changes occur forgetting,worry,tension,anxiety, stress, skipping meals,sleep disorders, ill health.

Exams induced changes in Children

1)The childrens worry begins when their starts comparing, with out praising them for getting good result.Due to it child starts thinking than reading and gets tensed that instead of praising him for marks.

2)As a part of it, his concentration decreases, thinking starts about what if i get less marks, due to this thoughts a slight changes occur in his time table.

3)with this thoughts peeping while his studies pressure builds in him that he is wasting his time.slowly anxiety builds up as his thinking increases.

4)As his time is wasted in thinking he increases his time of reading by lowering time for his relaxing that is watching/listening or eating/sleeping time will be reduced.

5)As the time passes examination day approaches complications starts by headache and then change in his apetite & sleep.

6)Due to the above process i.e., severe headache,fever,stomach pain brings down study timing and in turn leads to low results.

After seeing the results parents gets frustrated and starts letting it out in different ways and some of the children may run off from home/suicide may occur.

Pressure should be given to children regarding studies but in low doses that child can handle it by which it will be helpful to both parents and children.

Exams are a part of life which teaches us to how to handle the difficult situation in life here we have supplementary but in life race we have no second chance

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BASIC STEPS TO OVERCOME exam Stress

The Final Exam:

Stress is good for our life during exam, it is the driving force for us to prepare in a better way to score more.
Some of the students before exams when in stress are focused and read the questions only which they may get in exams.
Its the common practice of many students but not possible for some of the students.

Stress is bad for our life during exam, it is the force which stops us from prepare in a better way to score more.
But we start worrying that we may forget what we read , we may fail in exam, we may meet with an accident, we may get fever or headache.
Some of them due to over stress feel that they forget what they have read due to fear they don't really.

FAILURE MEANS DELAY NOT DEFEAT i.e., delay in remembering what we have read

As the time of examination approaches nearer or on the examination day.
we grow more anxious, as the time lessen the anxiety increases more and our breathe fasten.
So try to breathe slowly and deeply.

Try to smile before the exam and when you feel tensed during reading the exam paper if you feel you don't know any of the question.

Common reactions to exam stress

PHYSICAL:

Sleep disturbances , changes in appetite, Cold and other respiratory infections, headaches and migraine, Fast and shallow breathing, Muscle tension, Frequent urge to pass urine

PSYCHOLOGICAL:

Anxiety, withdrawn or restlessness, Low self Esteem, Sadness, Irritability, Frustration and Agression, Lack of concentration, Unable to relax.

Due to this sleep disorders it leads to loss appetite – cold, headache or both –irritabilty –frustation –problem in relaxing-concentration problem- relationship issues

Parents should be flexible during exam times, Don't set any goals ,don't bribe the child . Being tensed it would make child nervous . Let play,watch T.V, Sleep but not as usual Same them its exam time but do not repeat it over a period of time regularly.

Strong relationship exists between the food and the mental state of person

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Examination Phobia

There is an unfortunate trend prevailaing now a days in our education system. Each teachers or parents wants children to be Whiz kids/Super Kids who can perform multi-tasking like scoring highest marks,performing well in sports,singing ,dancing and many others.Among some of the teachers and parents,they paint examinations as great trials. This abnormal approach generates great tension in the minds of children, leading to nervousness, anxiety, lack of appetite, empty stomach, and poor performance in the examinations. Even parents take a lot of tension during their kids exams,they are prone to nervousness,anxiety .The reason for the above is the corporate culture & High expectation from our near and dear people. To overcome the above situation,the children should prepare systematically with total dedication and face examinations with confidence, without worrying about the results while they are writing the answers.

Exam phobia is due to the pressure on them. Now a days parents are pressuring the kids to get very high marks and insisting upon them to stand first in class. More over some kids are also afraid of exams because they are not well prepared for the test or they lack confidence. So the parents to avoid phobia should first find out the basic problem and then try to tackle it accordingly by boosting up their confidence levels.

Examination phobia is a normal feeling that a child has while appearing for the exam. It is the fear of failure,in such case you as a parent/teacher should counsel kids by saying that the failure mean delay not defeat i.e.(we should remember what ever we read and write it in the appropriate given time and if they score lesser marks,they will be having another set of exams in which they can score higher marks.) By saying this kind of words give kids support in preparing for the examination by helping her in studying and make her feel comfortable if she is not in a position to learn anything while preparing for the exams. Sometimes difficult lessons or subject keeps them awake the whole night and the result is a failure and anxiety level increase which may lead to depression. So always be with them. Encourage them by saying life is a challenge, be a learner, failure makes you know that you lack somewhere in learning the concepts.

To get rid of Exam phobia to that matter any phobia ,expose them directly to to the cause i.e, assure them with love that the sky is not going to fall if they fails.Assure her even if she submits a blank paper that you are not going to be annoyed or punish them.Parents should not intimidate the children in any form. Once they tastes the sweetness in success no one can stop them. You as the parent/teacher should be prepared for the worst until they gains their normal self. try it.

Good luck.

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