An original speech, written by our student Avishi Bagga.

Avishi is 12 years old, and a young writer from Gurugram. She is inspired by imagination which motivates her to express her daily thoughts through writing because she feels that she can make people learn something new in a fun way. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Avishi for this exemplary true self-expression.

Exams And Its Stress !!!

Exams, Exams, Exams!! So stressful for teens. Thankfully the main exams, the half-yearly, and finals come only once a year. That means the whole year is filled with exams.  Exams give you only one thing. Any guesses? Well it’s not scores, it’s not certificate, its stress….Stress is mainly related to examinations getting severe day by day for adolescents’ health. Let’s understand what is this everyday audible word stress.

Stress is the specific and nonspecific response of the body to any kind of physiological pressure or unwanted forces due to environmental or peripheral effects. Examination stress is the result of examination pressure in form of physiological and psychological changes in the health of adolescents. This results in muscle tension, indigestion, sleep difficulties, pounding heartbeat, frequent urge to pass urine, fast or slow breathing, chest discomfort, change in appetite, constipation or diarrhea, backache, frustration, aggression, tension, unable to relax, mentally drained out, fussy, gloomy or suspicious, being constantly frightened or irritable, inability to concentrate or complete the task and much more.

During exams, teens are mentally blocked after studying 16 hours a day and after a point, they just want to be free and spend time relaxing even those fractions of minutes when they take a break their parents will say “Why are you not studying?” The pressure gets worse because parents are not supportive most of the time. I feel most Indian parents have conditional love which mainly depends upon the marks we secure. If the teens get a B+ the parents would stop talking to the kids, and when the parents would go to the market with the kids, and somebody would ask, “Aww!!! Is that your kid, they are so cute” the parents would reply by saying “No, that’s not my kid, they are just a child who got a B+.” These words act like a sword for the teen developing self-confidence. Imagine if there is no support at home then how we will progress?

Now come the nosey Indian aunties and uncles. If the stress from the parents is not enough, these nosey neighborhood aunties will add up all the necessary stress you are lacking. When they visit you, they will ask “how are your exams going on, beta?” Why can’t they ask, how are you doing? Trust me during exams if you ask about exams that itself is stressful.

How to deal with this? We can deal with the stress of exams by working on our daily routine like going out to play and studying in a fun way. This way we won’t be bombarded with study pressure just before exams. I usually study in a playful manner. My mom picked out some videos for me to watch which are related to the topics. Then I can understand the topics and make notes at the same time. This way I don’t have to do rote learning and I get the satisfaction that I have watched TV and the topics which I don’t understand my mom explains to me.

Some tips to study well are first to understand your way of learning for example some kids can study by reading their notes out loud or by writing while others write and understand.

As far as the comments from others are concerned, I feel they are like dirty drawings on the blackboard which I erase immediately by ignoring. I believe in myself and I know I can do anything. Hence my focus is on putting 110% effort into my work with complete honesty and I don’t give others the right to give me a certificate. Hence, I am contended and not stressed. We always have a choice and we need to know which one to choose stress or effort in our work. Which one you would like to choose?

Leave your valuable comments for encouraging our student to innovate, explore and express more.