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Effects of stress on academic performance of students
Effects of stress on academic performance of students
Effects of stress on academic performance of students
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As a college student, is the idea of your final grade being based off of just a midterm and final very stressful? O 'Malley argues in his essay "More Testing, More Learning" that professors should give out more quizzes and assignments to reduce the stress and procrastination students face before midterms and finals. Although this might be helpful for a high school setting, it would not be completely efficient at a college level. This is because frequent testing takes up a significant amount of students and professors time, are added stress throughout the year, will not fix a students procrastination, and having high stake tests prepares students for their future. Some of O 'Malley 's ideas seem reasonable and would help students while others are an inconvenience for the professor and students.
O 'Malley suggests in his essay that professors should give weekly quizzes or review worksheets. The average, full-time college student takes five or six courses per semester. If every professor assigned one in class quiz or long assignment to be completed out of class each week, among other assignments the student would be completely overwhelmed. The student would have to spend so much time
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It would be better for a students mental health to have to deal with a lot of stress due to an assignment less often. Also, when the passing of a class is determined by one or two tests, this prepares students for even bigger tests worth even more when they leave undergraduate school and start graduate school or apply for a competitive job. Having your grade depend on two tests can be very stressful but, this is preparing students for there future. They will begin to get used to high stake tests and learn how to prepare for them which is a necessary skill. Dealing with stress and getting work done on time and to the best of your ability is very important for a future after
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
In “More Testing, More Learning,” Patrick O’Malley presents his argument in the essay of why taking major exams at the end of a student’s course harms them more than it does the student any good. O’Malley states that, “Although the last*minute anxiety about midterm and final exams is only too familiar to most college students, many professors may not realize how such major, infrequent, high-stakes exams work against the best interests of the student psychologically and cognitively.” (483) With taking midterms and final exams O’Malley claims that it puts too much stress and too much importance one the one or two days of these major tests than in the students entire term. His argument is that with less tests given to the student takes away from
According the three leading effects of grading outlined in Kohn’s paper, the number one effect of grading is “grades tend to reduce students' interest in being taught.” I would agree with his argument grading and testing puts pressure on getting excellent grades and takes the focus off understanding and on “performing” acceptably. When I was younger, I was ferocious reading lately the only reading I accomplish is required for a class or studying a textbook. It was enjoyable since I loved reading; I was not required to read all the books I read due to my genuine love for reading and words. Because of that, I excelled in English.
In other words, two teachers may give the same assignment two completely different grades based on their own grading style. This puts an incredible amount of stress on a student because they need to complete assignments that will satisfy their current teacher, whose expectations and grading style could be very similar or very different from the student’s previous teacher. Alfie Kohn believes that the influence grades have on a student’s life doesn’t help this situation, and may even make it worse by providing students with a false sense of security about their knowledge. In her article “From Degrading to De-grading”, she states that scores on tests can be largely based on how the test was written and what skills were tested (Kohn 240). Therefore, it is up to teachers to identify what topics students must master in order to be proficient and score well on standardized tests. But when the class is not structured with a consideration for the material used on such tests, students enter the test blind to the skills that they will be expected to know and use. Anyone can memorize a list of facts off a study guide and score well on a multiple choice test the next day, but skills such as analyzing literature and interpreting a handful of graphs containing data from a scientific experiment are skills that require time and hours of instruction to master.
Many students feel stressed out when having to take standardized testing. According to Kaplan, colleges are relying too much on the SAT and ACT. They are using a long test that becomes equally weighted to years of school. That seems to be a little lopsided. A student can do well through out all high school and then score badly on the SAT or ACT and ruin all of the hard work that the student put forward in order to acquire good grades. That can alter the students lives by making them have to...
In More Testing, More Learning by Patrick O’Malley, O’Malley proposes many different solutions to the problems with exams, and test taking for college students. Throughout the story he references that the education system should implement frequent exams and quizzes. Instead of one big final exam causing huge amounts of anxiety for students. He claims that having one big exam isn’t in the best interest for the students. In fact, he believes that it hurts the student long-term and psychologically. Frequent exams and quizzes would be designed to help the students. He also believes that it would help the student develop into better frequent study habits.
This anxiety is “a psychological condition that involves severe distress before, during and/or after an exam, making it impossible for them to do their best work” (Strauss, “Test Anxiety: Why It Is Increasing and 3 Ways to Curb It.”). Test anxiety can cause a student to mentally shut down while they are taking a stress affiliated test. That is why it is crucial that students have Dead Day because they desperately need this break. Being a freshmen, I honestly do not know what to expect for finals week and that adds more stress to the existing equation. When a student is very nervous, “their capacity to think clearly and solve problems accurately is reduced.” said Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist at the University of Chicago (Strauss, “Test Anxiety: Why It Is Increasing and 3 Ways to Curb It.”). By this point in the semester, students have attended class for nearly a hundred days and are only asking for one day to clear their heads and de-stress before finals begin. Students barely have time to study before finals week because they have essays and final projects that are a large percent of their grades, due a week before finals. “We are scrambling trying to complete our coursework and study for finals at the same time,” said Zach Owens, a 21-year-old political science and business management major (Skelton, “Students Push Universities to Enforce Finals Week Policies.”). Students are in work overload at the end of the semester and they are only asking for twenty-four hours.. Some students have six classes and are already carrying more than the average work load. It is not a good idea to take these exhausted workaholic students right into finals that they haven’t even been able to truly study
Like the article said, even if I am very prepared for an exam, if my grade or something else is riding on the results of this test, then I am likely to do worse. Beilock did not give a clear solution to this issue. I think that testing in general adds a lot of stress to the individuals being tested. Ever since I began being tested in school, I have learned to fear the words test, exam, quiz, midterm, final, and any other words that may imply a test of any sort. I do believe that should be solved.
Giving frequent exams in place of midterm exams would just overrule the point of having a midterm, which is able to see where the student is and how well a student is doing half way through the
One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...
In high school teachers are continually reminding students when assignments are due. However, this is not the case in college. Students are responsible for managing their time. If during the four years students are in high school teachers start to give the students more responsibility than when they get to college they will not be overwhelmed by all the things they have to do on their own. In addition, this would also help because when you are a freshman you are just getting to know the school and you are basically throw into all new territory. On the other hand, I also think a student needs a support system during
In the research article “Test-Enhanced Learning” by Henry L. Roediger III, and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, the researchers set out to determine whether or not taking memory tests would improve retention for people over time. They hypothesized that performance where the participants were immediately tested would increase with the number chances to study the material. They also hypothesized that taking tests in a short time after studying would lead to greater retention on tests taken later compared to repeatedly studying the passages. There were two experiments to test their hypothesis. In the first experiment the participants in the experiments studied short passages on basic science. In Experiment 1, they either took a test on the material or studied
Many parents are outraged to hear that their son/daughter may not graduate high school because they didn't pass one test. Especially because it may not be because they don't know the material, but because they are not a good test taker. But something that parents, teachers, and students all have in common is that they all think that high stakes testing is puts too much unnecessary stress on everyone.“In signing the resolution, county school board members said they've received many complaints from parents, students, and teachers who say the emphasis on testing puts too much stress on students and interferes with class time and instruction.” (Ross). That isn’t even half of the problems that students face due to the increased stress. Some students are losing sleep anticipating the big test, teachers are trying their hardest to make sure they're ready, parents can see their children struggling with the material but knowing they can't help them. That is stressful enough to break anyone.Tests can be stressful, especially when they're made such a big deal. As a high schooler I would know this. People lose sleep, appetite, and focus because of these tests, which is a terrible
tests to graduate from high school; others disagree and think these tests just cause more stress for
A high school class and a college class are conducted in different ways. In high school, teachers exercise control over the flow of information, while college professors encourage the student to seek out pertinent information. Throughout the year, a high school teacher will remind the student of upcoming due dates and assignment requirements. If a student misses a test or homework assignment, the teacher will provide missing notes or study guides so that the student is kept up to date with the rest of the class. For example; when I was in high school, I missed a week of school to go on vacation with my family. My mother spoke with my teacher before we left and he agreed to let me turn in my homework when I returned to class. Furthermore, my teacher allowed me to make up the single quiz that I missed during my absence. Neither the late homework, nor the missed quiz reflected in my grade. A college professor would have made me choose between a good grade and a vacation with my family. In contrast, the college professor...