Keeping The Stress of Finals Week In Check 

While the sights and sounds of the upcoming holiday season may be everywhere, most college students may find them hard to appreciate with the mounting stress that goes along with preparing for finals week. After all, it is easy for late night cram sessions, study groups, long hours at the library and even test anxiety to bring on large amounts of stress.

So, exactly what is stress anyway? In simple terms it is anything that stimulates and increases our level of alertness. Each one of us perceives stress and copes with stress in different ways. An event or situation that may be comfortable for one student, perhaps even exciting, may push another student to the edge. It is as though we each have a threshold for stress and when our personal stress threshold is crossed it can have negative physical and emotional effects.

Some common physical and emotional effects that students may experience indicating they may have crossed their stress threshold include: irritability, depression, pounding heart, an overpowering urge to cry, or run and hide, inability to concentrate, frequent fatigue, insomnia, high risk alcohol use and emotional tension.

Stress management is a way to maintain a comfortable level of stress that is healthy and can even increase your chances of performing well under the pressure of  finals week. Check out some stress management options to the right!

The bottom line is that while finals are a major part of your overall grade, it can be detrimental to let the stress of finals overwhelm you. So take the time to try some of these techniques and relax, you will discover you will perform better come exam time.