With pressure and workloads building as finals approach, students need to be able to handle the stress in a healthy way so as to avoid feeling overwhelmed, according to officials at University Health Services.
Rob Sepich, student relations manager for UHS, said the main thing students can do is set realistic expectations for what they want to accomplish each day, which will keep stress levels manageable.
“Students sometimes create extra stress by thinking they can do a semester’s worth of work at a really high-quality level in just a few days, so figuring out what would be realistic and just doing that is a good starting point,” he said.
With so many students feeling overwhelmed this time of year, Sepich said UHS sees an increase in the number of students who seek counseling during finals.
Despite this increase, he said finals are not the only factor bogging students down — they are usually just the tipping point.
“We see a lot of students with problems in relationships, family difficulties (and) other kinds of personal struggles where it’s not all about school, but the time pressures and deadlines of school seem to make these other issues all the more challenging,” he said.
To prevent students from reaching their limit, Sepich advocated basic self-care activities such as getting adequate amounts of sleep, eating healthy foods and exercising.
He said all three are important when a person is under a lot of stress because they prevent the feeling of being rundown. Of those factors, students most frequently cut out sleep and exercise during finals.
Sepich pointed to research that proves students recall material better after a good night’s sleep than if they would have pulled an all-nighter, and added exercise is a positive outlet to release the pressure and stress of exam week.
“If you can have 30-60 minutes of moderately intense exercise once a day … it can be a great way to physically release the stress and tension you’re experiencing academically,” he said.
As far as actual studying goes, Sepich recommends taking frequent breaks to enhance recall and being cautious about caffeine and nicotine intake.
Sepich said the body naturally produces hormones when under stress, and overuse of caffeine and nicotine can trigger this stress response, resulting in more anxiety than a person would be under naturally.
University of Wisconsin junior Megan Shiroda said she views the anxiety she feels during finals as a motivator to study rather than a burden. She added she is conscious of her caffeine intake in order to pace herself for the marathon that is finals week.
“I purposely monitor how much caffeine I take because the caffeine really doesn’t help me focus, it just keeps me awake,” she said.
Sepich’s final piece of advice was to avoid feeling stuck, whether it is by talking with someone about anxiety or taking a walk in the snow.
“It’s easy to lose your perspective… so… doing something different than where the pressure is can widen [a student’s] perspective and help reduce the pressure,” he said.
