header-mid

header-mid

Teen Life: By Students For Students

Stress

How to avoid it... and deal with it

Testing

How to avoid stress:

Ben Compton, one of our high school counselors explains that, “organization, procrastination... [are] things that end up causing stress. They impact sleep, which impacts focus and motivation in class.” He recommends that students who struggle with a heavy workload practice, “time management, organization, and fight through the tendency to procrastinate or get distracted”.


How to cope with stress:

Based on a survey conducted after the second semester of the 2017-18 school year, 92% of students said that their classmates at Concordia were available to them when they were feeling stressed out. 56% of students also said that counselors, teachers, and other members of the Concordia staff are readily available when they need assistance with dealing with the stress that comes from attending a prestigious school such as Concordia. Besides acting as a supportive network for students, Concordia also encourages students to find healthy coping mechanisms that relieve stress.


The graph pictured below shows some of the healthy ways that our students cope with stress. Incoming students might like to consider some of these methods that have proven successful with their Concordia peers.


Transition between Middle school and High school:

Through interviewing Concordia’s high school counselors, we learned that the stress developed during the transition from middle school to high school heavily impacts a students’ academic performance. A few of the main reasons why high schoolers experience more stress compared to when they were in middle school is because in high school, students must advocate for themselves, are not generally allowed any re-tests, and are given harder and heavier workloads. As middle schoolers become high schoolers, they begin to think more in depth about their academic achievement, causing stress. In high school, students must also be more selective with their co-curriculars, as the amount of work they have can limit what they can do. However, our counselors explain that co-curriculars can still help de-stress and increase interaction with others when chosen wisely.