Coping methods help students fight finals anxiety

Chemical engineering major Munnesa Bari faced three final exams in one week this semester. Her anxiety mounted as exam week drew closer. She knew pulling all-nighters and consuming lots of caffeine was not the way to go. So she came up with a plan to cope.

“I tell myself that the stress is temporary and it will end soon after exams,” says Bari. “That lightens my worry. I also clean and cook a lot, which really helps me feel better.”                                  

Bari is not alone. Between studying for exams and writing papers, finals week is one of the most stressful times of the year for college students.

The good news is that Bari and many other UB students have found ways to cope with finals anxiety.

Some, like Chris Krysztofowicz, an English language and literature major, think writing assignments are especially stressful because choosing a topic can be very time-consuming. Krysztofowicz has learned to pick more than one topic for a paper, and then selects the one that produces the most information. This helps alleviate the fear of handing in a paper late.

Duy Vo, a business administration student, believes papers are easy as long as they are completed in increments and are thought out well in advance of their due dates. But when this is not possible and Vo feels it’s crunch time, he has a coping mechanism.

“I try to listen to music really loudly to de-stress. I’m going deaf,” he jokes, “but it seems to work.”

Online classes have their own brand of finals stress, according to Nancy Tatum, a social science interdisciplinary student. She says it’s easy to forget about end-of-semester assignments without the physical presence of an instructor.

Tatum recalls how a week ago she forgot about a research paper that was due at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday and it was already Saturday. To make things worse, she had an exam on Monday. She managed to calm down and make a schedule for her time, deciding to do research for the remainder of Saturday and alternate between writing and studying on Sunday to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Many students confess to becoming anxious just thinking about final exams. They worry about getting too nervous and “blanking out.” They also fear running out of time and not finishing the exam.

“Last semester, I was super-stressed about a certain final,” says Maria Fritz, an accounting major. “My course grade relied heavily on it, so I was studying all the time for it and not focusing as much on my other classes.”

Fritz now copes with her exam anxiety by venting to friends. She also walks to relax and clear her thinking. Venting frustrations about completing end-of-semester assignments is a common coping strategy among students.

Former nursing student Cherice Wallace-Hill, now a student in the School of Social Work, remembers how nervous she was about memorizing lists of medical terminology.  Wallace-Hill says she has suffered from a poor memory since childhood and still gets very anxious when studying for tests. But just talking about it with peers makes her feel she’s not alone.

Students can help themselves get better grades and stay healthy by doing a few simple things, all to protect themselves from the toll anxiety takes on the human body and spirit, according to Amberly Panepinto, assistant director of counseling, UB Counseling Services. This includes eating healthy foods, getting plenty of sleep and making time for daily exercise. Panepinto says studies have shown that 20 minutes a day of cardiovascular exercise reduces anxiety.

Panepinto is emphatic that students should avoid sleep deprivation, especially during finals.

“Memory consolidation happens during sleep,” she says. “Students remember more when they study and sleep than when they study but don’t sleep.”

She also encourages students to use coping strategies, pointing out that some students benefit from meditation and yoga, and from periodically distracting their minds with pastimes they find enjoyable.

Panepinto reminds students that their “self-talk” should be as positive as possible.

“Instead of saying you can’t do it, say you know you can,” she says. “Tell yourself that you know you can be successful. Pay attention to your goals and recognize what is important to you and what you need to do to accomplish these goals.”

Panepinto says organization and planning go a long way toward combating stress, and it helps to have a schedule and stick to it. Feeling in control of a situation helps minimize nervous tension and self-doubt.

She also advises students to put away the electronics while studying. Students need to focus on one thing at a time to achieve maximum results, she says, noting that the distraction from a short phone call can last long after disconnecting.

“Remember that stress at exam time is normal,” she says. “In fact, it can even be motivational in driving a student to work harder. Stress is only debilitating when there is too much of it, and that’s why it is so important to take care of yourself and learn coping methods to keep your level of stress down.”

Chemistry major Sarah Fullington says she feels overwhelmed when facing all the material she needs to review for her exams. This intense stress is all the more reason to keep your mind and body healthy, the experts say.

“This is also why,” Fullington says, “students — as the counselor said — should have their own ways of coping, to stay positive and motivated so that they can put forth their best work.”