New study finds a third of HSC students are stressed by exams
A year-long study of HSC students has found an alarming one in three show signs of “extreme stress” on the eve of the Year 12 final exams. With symptoms often building throughout the school year, experts are calling for earlier intervention.
NSW
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One in three HSC students suffer severe stress in anticipation of their final exams, prompting a call from academics for early intervention in schools.
The first ever year-long study of 482 HSC students’ mental state throughout Year 12 has shown the number of students who suffer severe stress steadily mounts as exams loom, from 24 per cent in term one to 26 per cent in term two and 31 per cent in term three.
Symptoms of severe stress include panic attacks, self-harm, agitation, overreacting to situations, feelings of helplessness and lacking motivation to do things the student would otherwise enjoy.
With the first HSC exam in 11 days, 17-year-old Tyson Andree-Evarts is displaying symptoms of severe stress.
The schoolboy from Patrician Brothers’ College in Blacktown can’t enjoy watching television at night without worrying he hasn’t understood crucial elements of the syllabus that will crop up on the exams.
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“The HSC is the most stressful thing I’ve ever done and even when I sit down on the couch I can’t stop worrying,” Tyson said.
“I try not to stress out but exams are always in the back of my mind.”
While he considers himself “pretty chilled”, Macquarie University professor Viviana Wuthrich said Tyson’s inability to switch off and lose himself in a television drama was a classic symptom of severe stress.
Tyson’s stress has been exacerbated by pinning his hopes to a cyber security university degree with an ATAR cut-off score of 80, without a plan B.
For most teenagers, the HSC is the first time in their lives when they will experience the sort of pressure to excel commonplace at university and in the workforce.
Far from advocating Year 12 exams be scrapped, Ms Wuthrich said the research proves students who show signs of severe stress early in their final year of school need coaching to cope as symptoms only worsen.
The research has proved the effectiveness of early intervention, which includes encouraging strong social lives and work-life balance, as well as how to recognise when they’re catastrophising over insignificant setbacks like a bad mark in a trial exam.
“If students are already freaking out in term one, there’s not much hope and they’re the kids who end up really distressed with panic attacks and medications.
“We can reduce the severity for the really highly stressed kids by teaching them resilience skills.”
The study also showed one in four HSC students show symptoms of severe depression, including unrelenting hopelessness about the future, thoughts or acts of self-harm, major weight loss or not showering.
However, the instances of severe depression only increase slightly throughout Year 12 and while extreme stress can lead to depression, the student needs to have the right genetic vulnerability.
Originally published as New study finds a third of HSC students are stressed by exams