Mental Health, Performance Pressure, and Exam

– Srishti Srivastava**

Despite scoring good and descent marks in the exam students these days are finding it hard to get admission to good universities. Such is the mental pressure faced by students these days. Earlier such high mental pressure could be associated with exams like UPSC but now a day’s students as young as 18 are facing such mental pressure. Exam preparation may demand not only physical and mental being but also persistence. The end of these preparations is to ace the exams with good exams. The mental pressure to achieve this result may be self-inflicted or in some cases by members of the family or by teachers or some colleagues in a few instances. Anxiety as it is said is the body’s response to a situation when a person steps out of their comfort zone and the consequence of it may be different for various people. Like in some cases it may lead to physical discomforts like gut irritation or some mental discomfort like lack of concentration and attention deficit.  All of this can lead to poor performance. While some amount of stress can be beneficial to the student as it can help them perform better but an unprecedented amount of it can prove detrimental. In some cases, mental health – stress and anxiety can drive them to take extreme steps such as suicide in the last few years, this has emerged as a daunting problem.

The National Crime Record Bureau data for the year 2020 recorded a new high of about 12,526 students committing suicide hence registering a sharp increase of about 21.9% since 2019[1]. The Covid 19 situation has made the case worse as it has further added mental pressure due to staying indoors and in isolation due to the lockdown imposed. When the age of these persons who died by suicide was looked upon, they were mostly between the age of 18-25 years. So, exam pressure (indirectly mental pressure), the stress of under-performance, and unemployment could be attributed as the primary reason for these deaths along with other causes like family-related issues. Some of the reasons which can lead to building up of stress and sometimes depression in students include:

1. External Pressure– This pressure may come from parents or other relatives or teachers in form of huge pressure of expectation. Students may feel the pressure not to disappoint any one of them, hence making them prone to anxiety and nervousness to perform well. Many times the comparison between students by parents or teachers may make them feel more nervous and pressurized to win. This leads to the mental health issues.
2. Internal Pressure– Sometimes this pressure doesn’t come from outside but the students themselves burden themselves to achieve an extraordinary feat. Especially in those cases, when the student already has been performing well then he/she further pushes herself to excel which may lead to nervousness and over-thinking. This over-thinking may lead to the development of a pessimistic approach which is harmful to the performance and mental health.
3. Paucity of preparation and practice– Lack of thorough preparation can lead to the formation of jittery feelings in students and last-minute preparation may further mess up the mind of a student and can lead to anxiety, especially when one takes a look at the exam paper. So, nervousness may be a consequence of a lack of practice as well.

While discussing the above scenarios we can see that maybe the last cause could entirely be in the capacity of a student to prevent but to ease out other mental pressures following steps could be taken by the students and families and other institutions like schools against being at odd with mental health –

• Exercise or physical activity or any recreational task- As has been proven in a lot of research that any sort of exercise like Running, jumping jacks, swimming, meditation, or even taking a walk may help to release endorphins a happy hormone that can help one to deal with all the stress. When one engages themselves in a recreational task, it makes one happy hence coping with pressure.  Also, it can make one take their mind off the things and at the same time give them time to think of ways to deal with the exam stress.
• Eating well and getting proper sleep – could provide the necessary energy to think properly and sit for long hours. Sleeping well makes one’s mind get rid of the tiredness and be well prepared for the long hours of studying and keep more things in mind.  
• Setting realistic goals- When a student sets an unrealistic goal for the day and is not able to achieve it this can hamper their confidence which can further make them more anxious for the exams. Accepting one’s level of understanding and grasping the concept and working hard towards bettering it can prove beneficial.
• Comparison with others- At times if we listen more about others’ reparation it can make one doubt one’s pace of preparation which might be going well but due to the self-doubt can be slowed down. Also when we talk more with others, there are chances that their negativity can rub off yours.
• Making strategies to calm nervousness and be well-prepared – It is normal to get nervous before exams or any kind of test, so it is important to devise techniques to calm oneself down be it breathing techniques having a sip of water, or going for a walk. Also strategizing your preparation well before exams can help one boost confidence and be sure of their performance.
• Discussion as a method of preparation- When we use Group Discussion as a method of study, it can be helpful for revision. It can also make one realize any important point if something gets missed while preparing. Revising with peers can also help students engross their notes in a better manner.
• Reach out to someone if the stress gets out of hand- It’s always beneficial to talk to someone whether any counselor or parent or peer if you feel like the tension and anxiety are taking a toll on your mind and body. It’s better to go for an experienced one who can offer a viable solution to the problem and also may come up with a tailored situation suitable for a particular student to deal with the problem.
• Proper awareness of channels which a student can resort to and including it in the normal course of the conversation – Not only families but institutions like schools and coaching centers where students spend most of the time apart from home must also take a step to make the student aware of the channels or any person to reach to if they feel any such anxiety and pressure affecting their mental health. Also, getting over the taboo over issues of mental health is the first direction towards tackling this menace of a problem.

The magnitude of this problem is ever increasing and it is important to address it before the situation gets worse it requires a joint effort from both families along with schools and students. But the onus is more on the former one in this situation as they can understand and help the students tackle this problem which they might not be able to identify in some cases.

**The author is UGC NET Dec 2020 qualified, has done her LLM from Hidyatuallah National Law Unversity (HNLU) Raipur and LLB from Hemvati Nandan Bahugana Garhwal University Srinagar.

Disclaimer:  The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and not to the Jurisedge Academy.

You can access our Recent Legal News Archives and our Blogs on legal updates from around the globe.

You may follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for daily legal updates and join our Telegram channel.

[1] https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides.pdf.