With finals week quickly approaching, Camas High School (CHS) students are beginning to feel overwhelmed and stressed.
“Finals are literally so stressful. I feel like my brain is just fried. I’m trying to stay positive, but when I don’t get enough sleep all week I start to stress,” Makenna Lee, a CHS junior, said.
While trying to focus on studying for the finals, students are also struggling to navigate the mental health aspect of the preparation. Many students are building habits to make this process easier.
“I just make sure to focus on the study guides my teachers provide and I use my sources like my friends and my parents to help me,” CHS junior Scott Johnson said.
However, even with this preparation, students still feel overwhelmed. This is often attributed to the pressure of perfectionism. Since most finals are weighted heavily in the grading system, students feel as though their scores have to be nearly perfect in order to maintain a grade they are satisfied with. It is important to steer students’ minds in the right direction and get them thinking in a positive light.
“When we aim for perfection, we set ourselves up for failure because perfection is unattainable and it makes it hard on our mental well being,” CHS counselor Leontina Liebe said.
Instead of aiming for the idea of perfection, students need to aim to do the best that is possible for themselves.
“We need to strive for excellence, strive to make improvements and strive to expand our skillset and make goals that are achievable,” Liebe said.
A good way to reach this positive mindset is to develop certain habits that will ease the stress on a student’s mind. They can achieve this by studying and preparing early.
“Start now. Don’t procrastinate which is hard but the earlier you start studying for your finals and going through the information from the whole semester the more prepared you’re gonna feel when you get to finals,” CHS associate principal Seanna Pitassi said.
Students should also be taking care of their physical well-being. They should be eating well, and getting enough sleep so that their minds are fully present during the final. They can also develop habits that will help them during the final.
“Work on some deep breathing exercises and imagine yourself being successful which will calm yourself down and allow your brain to think more clearly,” Liebe said.
Developing this mindset and these habits can steer a student towards success and away from the pressure of perfection.
“How you do on your final is not going to determine the trajectory of your whole life. There’s so much more time left for you to figure things out,” Pitassi said.
