As the end of the school year approaches, students face a new challenge: exam season. Exam season is from the beginning of May until the last day of school and consists of SOLs, AP and IB exams, course-specific final projects and exams.
Despite this chaos of academic obligations, it’s important to remember that May is also Mental Health Awareness month.
Final season can cause many students with mental health issues to feel anxious or desperate leading up to assessments and deadlines.
The population of students struggling with mental health issues in our county has been on the rise since the pandemic.
“More than 38% of the students in 8th, 10th and 12th grade reported feeling so sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row in the past year that they stopped doing some usual activities (persistently sad or hopeless). Approximately 17% reported suicidal thoughts and 6% reported suicide attempts,” Fairfax County Government NewsCenter reports.
This data highlights the importance of helping students and promoting mental health awareness. There can be many triggers for mental health struggles, and the stress of having a heavy workload with many exams or projects due in a short period of time can be a very good example of that.
Freshmen Samim Alam, is preparing for his first year of exam season and has two final exams (one for Geometry and another for English) and two final projects (geography and Spanish). He also recently completed his SOL’s in Geometry and Biology.
“I feel very stressed because of all these finals,” Alam said.
He admits he usually feels stressed when he thinks about whether he passed or failed but tries to cope with the stress by acknowledging he studied well for the exam or test.
But Alam tries to maintain a healthy balance between studying and self care during this challenging time. “I balance it by valuing my relaxation time. Sometimes just a little bit of video games or even playing basketball helps me relax and clear my mind. I also take small breaks between studying so my mind can relax. I prioritize my sleep and make sure I get a good night’s sleep so I can study better and do well on my exams,” Alam said.
And as Alam points out, there is an end in sight to exam season. “Knowing after completing exams, school is off for a long time really helps me pull through,” Alam said.
Junior Maheen Asif has experienced exam season before. After completing SOLs, she now deals with final projects and “two to three finals.”
“Overall, I am quite stressed for the end of the year and completing my finals in time. Everything gets piled up so suddenly; it’s very stressful,” Asif said.
Asif admits she doesn’t have a strict schedule on studying for final exams.
“When it’s finals and exams, I usually try to make a list and study or prepare for the closest one. However, I feel that I don’t need to spend a great amount of my time studying for [just] one class,” Asif said.
Senior Shakeel Osmani admitted to also getting anxious before exams. He likes to “YOLO-it sometimes and not stress at the moment but let the stress out later” after exams are done.
Osmani, Alam, and Asif all want mental health to have more awareness during finals, especially for those who have a hard time during exam season.
Asif believes that students’ mental health is not sufficiently supported during final exam season. “Some teachers are inconsiderate with their workload and keep piling up assignments on us. I don’t think I’ve ever felt supported during finals week. I’ve always had an anxious feeling, and my stress levels have increased heavily,” Asif said.
While Alam is new to exam season, he sees its problems. “Students who are very mentally stressed are going to have a harder time on exams and they might get a score that they may not like. If we raise more awareness on mental health, then we can provide them with support to manage stress better leading to better results in the future,” Alam said.
Asif belives that teachers should be mindful of students’ schedules and obligations. “We receive a lot of work from each of our classes and on top of that we have extracurriculars to do. It gets very tiring and stressful during exam season, students need breaks too, ” Asif said.
While exam season can be a very stressful time, with final projects, final exams, SOL’s and much more, it is very important for students and teachers to prioritize self care and support. During this time of year, students should take more breaks at this hectic time of year, speak with a trusted adult if they are feeling stressed, and take care of themselves and their mental health. Teachers can also help by being supportive and being mindful and keeping track of the work they assign.
By fostering mental health awareness, we can help students get through exam season by creating a more supportive environment for everyone. By doing this, we can ensure students are successful in both their academics and well-being.
