An Undeniable Link
By: Tomás Cordova
In today´s school system, teenagers live in fear of one particular period: exam period. This is the period where their knowledge is supposedly tested in a series of arbitrary questions printed on a piece of paper, and made by a teacher who was probably about as lazy making the exam as students are with their homework. The teens are locked in a room for about an hour and a half with no ability for communication. They are told to shut up and answer the test as best as they can, often leaving them in an unwinnable situation.
Stress caused by exams can cause a variety of problems including drug use, dropping out of school, sleep disorders, physical health issues, lowered function of the immune system, cognitive problems, anxiety, eating disorders and self-harm. In Britain 76% of Primary School teachers and 94% of Secondary School teachers affirmed that exam periods caused serious psychological problems on students in the study “Exam Factories?” A strong case of this was a student that was hospitalized for three months in a psychiatric ward following a suicide attempt. Another almost starved herself and was hospitalized for five months.
Another country well known for its problems with stressful exams is India. The problems in India are even higher than in Britain, with the country having one of the highest suicide rates in youths aged 15-29. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, every hour a student kills himself in India. Estimates say that in the period between 2010-2014, 39,775 students killed themselves. A reason for the dramatic prominence of this problem in India compared to other countries is the high social and familiar pressure for success in exams, compared to other countries where it is seen as important but less so. Also, students are discouraged from spending their money on counseling. In most cases, failure in exams is not the only reason for the suicide, but the family´s reaction is also a relevant factor.
Often students who come from underprivileged backgrounds tend to have a higher amount of exam related stress. This is due to the fact, that students from rich families often have many options to fall back on, be it inheritance money or a job at their parent´s company. On the other hand, poor students do not have this benefit and are highly motivated to succeed in their career so they can have a better life than their parents. Sometimes an exam can seem like the difference between a bright future and a life of squalid poverty.
Telephone helpline YoungMinds reported that in the years 2010-2011, 39% of the calls it received from teenagers where about exam troubles. Many teenagers reported that the stress made them withdraw from their usual social activities, becoming isolated from their friends and acquaintances. Some teenagers have also seen a decrease in athletic ability due to academic stress, and have withdrawn from their sport activities due to studying monopolizing their time.
Another negative point of exams is that it creates a rift between different students who should have much in common. Exams pit different minds against each other as rivals, although each may have a different specialty. This is also not good preparation for a work environment where teamwork is highly important. Exams reinforce the “Look out after number one” mentality, where you have to be the person in control, with the most leverage. It reinforces the mindset that we have to keep information from our teammates just to be one step ahead of them. Exams show us that sharing information is wrong, and that one person needs to have all the answers. This leads to similar patterns in team projects. In exams, some people do extremely well and some do extremely badly and; in team projects some members work extremely well and some work extremely poorly.
Another possible cause for the stress is the seeming inconsequentiality and irrelevancy of several of the exams. In high school, students are forced to take exams for subjects that do not relate at all to their future career. To someone who wishes to study physics, a literature exam will seem rather useless; to someone who wishes to study literature, a physics exam will seem equally irrelevant. During high school, a student can feel stuck, knowing what he wants to do, but unable to move on to the study of his passion, instead being forced to see topics that he has no interest in, but that he still has to memorize and comprehend.
Speaking of comprehension that could be related to another reason for the stress. Some exams are not based on the student´s comprehension of the topic but on his knowledge of the exact text handed out in the book or in the teacher´s notes. This leads to students studying to memorize a text book instead of mastering a topic, something that would be more useful and less tedious.
Taking all these factors into account, in my opinion, the exam system has many drawbacks and should be considered for retirement in the future. For all of its perceived advantages, there are several flaws. It might be a system that benefits teachers who are too lazy to actually teach themselves, leaving the teaching to a predesigned textbook, but it does not favor the students, who in the end, are the goal of education, the purpose for its creation. To improve students´ lives we must reconsider the system. Education has a future, and it looks much different and much more humane than today.
REFERENCES
Stone, J. (2015, July 6). Over-focus on exams causing mental health problems and self-harm among pupils, study finds. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2017 from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poltics/over-focus-on-exams-causing-mental-health-problems-and-self-harm-among-pupils-study-finds-10368815.html
Weyrauch, M. (2014, Nov 17). 9 Harmful Effects Of Test Induced Stress: Kaplan Test Prep. Retrieve Nov. 21, 2017 from http://www.kaptest.com/blog/med-school-pulse/2014/11/17/9-harmful-effects-test-induced-stress/
Bell, J. (2014, Feb. 7). Exam pressure can lead to metal illness if neglected, experts warn UAE pupils. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2017 from https://www.thenational.ae/uae/health/exam-pressure-can-lead-to-mental-illness-if-neglected-experts-warn-uae-pupils-1.263086
Delhi, D.S. (2017, April 8). Every hour, one student commits suicide in India. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2016 from http://www.hindustantimes.com/health-and-fitness/every-hour-one-student-commits-suicide-in-india/story-7UFFhSs6h1HNgrNO60FZ2O.html
