Students Find Stress Relief During Final Exams

Students at Angelo State University are closing out their semesters and trying to end on a strong note. Final exams are the last and final grades updated in the system, and could make or break it for a class or a GPA.

Talk about a stressful situation, but there are plenty of helpful and relaxing ways students relieved their stress during this nail biting time period, and they wanted to share them because anyone can use them, including high school students coming close to the end of their school year.

For Angelo State students, the staff brought dogs into the library for students to pet and snuggle with while they studied.  Also, massaging stations were set up in the University Center during dead week. It was a fun and relaxing way for students to relieve stress. 

“I get very overwhelmed and stressed during finals,” said Justin Martinez, an ASU student. “I have to walk away from studying sometimes so I can just rest my brain and not overload.”

When asked about their approach to dealing with finals, some students said spacing out their time helped ease their stress. Instead of cramming everything together and failing to absorb everything, they spaced their studying over a period of time so they had time to focus on thing at a time.

Brooke Robertson, an ASU volleyball player, said, “If I am cramming for a test, I like to walk away when I start to feel overwhelmed and go work out for a bit; it’s proven that working out can improve brain processing speed.”

Working out is not for everyone, but students like Robertson believe taking a work or jog down the street gives students a nice break, so they can come back refreshed and ready to go over the next topic of study.

Some students also say a good way to relieve stress is to find their inner Chi. When they are starting to feel the pressure from studying, some people like a completely silent workspace, and when they have reached an overload point, they shut their eyes and take deep breaths, which saves them from screaming and throwing their books away.

“If I am stressed about a test, I usually study as long as I can. Then I go eat my stress away and take a power nap,” said Cameron Niblock, a ASU student and reporter for San Angelo LIVE!. “Sometimes, resting the brain is the best for it.” He added that drinking teas or coffee is also a nice, hot, and a relaxing stress reliever for those nights of studying. It keeps him alert and observant of the materials he's going to cover. 

When it came down to actually studying and finding ways to help obtain the information better, many students read their material out loud to remember specific things they were studying. By doing so, they mentally stored the information in two ways: by seeing it and hearing it.

Listening to music was another way students at ASU relieved stress while studying. While everyone has their own preference on what they like to listen to while studying, classical music has been shown to reduce anxiety and tension. Listening to classical in the background while studying helped a few students deal with their stress.

Now that finals are over, many students at ASU and Howard College can take a deep breath and wait for the final results. However, many local high school students still have to prepare for their finals. Hopefully, some of these tips will help.