Ways To Manage Your Stress Levels

The dictionary definition of stress is “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances”. This could be from any situation; school, work, family or friends. I’ve been feeling stressed out recently because of the following reasons:

• I’ve had three university interviews in three weeks
• I’m organising a ceilidh to fundraise for my gap year
• I’m revising Maths for my QTS skills test
• I’m revising for my A Level mock exams

But I’ll be giving you my best de-stressing advice to ensure that stress levels are kept to a minimum.

1. Write it all down

Write a list of all of the things you need to do and then prioritise the things that need to be done first. Make a timetable to ensure that you are spending an equal time on each subject or topic.

2. Ensure you get enough fresh air and exercise

A quick 15 minute walk around your neighbourhood really isn’t too much to ask for, is it? You’ll feel so much better afterwards as you’ll be leaving your house to get some fresh air, whilst doing a gentle form of exercise. Walking really helps to relax me and clear my head.

3. Take a relaxing bath

During exam season, one of my favourite things to do is take a really long bubble bath where I can just lie down, relax and listen to my favourite songs. This puts me in a great mood for the week ahead and it allows me to reflect of the previous week.

4. Find a hobby that you enjoy

Make sure you have a hobby that you can do when you just want to do something that you enjoy. For example, you could learn how to unicycle, juggle, knit, bake etc.

5. Talk to someone

Sharing your feelings with someone else can really help and chances are they understand as they’re going through the same thing or have done in the past. You can explain how you feel and they’ll offer you more advice of how to manage with your stress levels.

Do High Grade Predictions Cause Results to Suffer?

I recently received my A Level predicted grades that consist of: A*, A and B. I was happy with these as they are higher than what I was expecting and higher than what I need to get into my university course. However, with having such high predictions, especially the A*, comes the added pressure.

Higher predictions means higher expectations. If I don’t get an A* and I get an A instead I will feel like I have let my teachers, the school and myself down, even though an A is AMAZING. Surely it would be better to predict someone an A and if they outperform this then they will be delighted and less disappointed in themselves?

In addition, The Guardian found that more than half of predicted grades are wrong, which can have subsequent consequences for students who have just missed out on getting into their top choice uni. Students miss out on offers that their real grades would have gained, while others get offered places on the basis of optimistic predictions. Something needs to be changed.

Laura Brown, a student blogger for the charity Young Minds wrote “I think that schools should put less pressure upon students to reach these high target grades, often just to fulfil their quota of a certain percentage of each grade and instead either not set target grades or if they must do so, not show them to the pupils”. It would be much better if teachers actually gave us real life predictions not just ones that they hope that you’ll achieve.

But what does a teacher do if a pupil asks for their predicted grades to be moved up so that they can get into the uni that they want? The teacher is put in a really difficult situation. For example, say a pupil gets a C overall in their  AS exam and they ask for it to be moved up to a B as they need BBB for their course, does the teacher change it or leave it as it is? A2 is harder than AS but if they only got a C at AS would they really be able to achieve a B? But if they don’t, then they are stopping the student from achieving their full potential and the pupil could do better than expected and prove the teacher wrong. However, if they moved it up and the pupil didn’t get that grade they’d be even more disappointed as their uni may not accept them. It’s all a tangled up mess that needs to be fixed.

Understandably, our teachers want us to succeed so that we get into our first choice uni and by predicting us high grades they are giving us the best chance to do this, but I don’t think it’s fair to students to add extra pressure by estimating super high grades that are unachievable. It just adds more pressure, stress and hassle that could cause your grades to suffer.

Have you received your predicted results? If so, do you think that they’re too high? Let me know what you think in the comment section below.