It's that time of the semester where students must face final exams.

Grade 12 students, in particular, can feel intense pressure this time of year, due to diploma exams.

Local teacher at Holy Trinity Academy, Adam Humphrey, says the sheer weight of the exams can bring a lot of stress.

"Just the fact that it's worth 30% of their mark; that's what the grade 12 diplomas are worth. They used to be worth 50% but they rolled it back a couple of years ago to 30."

Humphrey says students do have access to a lot of resources to help them prepare.

"Everybody's different. A lot of teachers, especially in math and science disciplines do podcasts where they record their lessons and students can go back and listen to that. Our teachers at HTA also do a lot of scheduled help, and a lot of rewrite opportunities where kids can have a chance to revise something or just start fresh. The main thing would be to be on it throughout the semester. Something that we typically see is there may be students who may not be working as hard or taking advantage of rewrite opportunities throughout the semester, and then once it comes down to crunch time during the exams, that's when this anxiety hits."

Humphrey adds that communication is important too, especially for students who bring the stress home with them.

"It's not uncommon during exam break to walk through the office and see a kid sitting in a chair in tears, and I think what teachers need to do there and what parents need to do is understand that kids at that point, even if it's partly their own neglect that brought them there, that's not the moment to rain down criticism, it's the moment to talk to them, ask them how they're feeling, and hopefully reinforce that a test mark doesn't define them."

 

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