As AP exams approaches, balancing academic success and mental health can be challenging for students. During AP season, many students prioritize their studies in hopes to score that perfect 5.
But the pressure of maintaining good grades can impact a student’s mental well being. As students question whether it’s worth it. The idea that it can have an effect on their future careers.Which affects students mentally with prioritizing grades over health.
Students often pull all-nighters or miss school to dedicate their time studying, which helps them feel more prepared at times, but can lead to sleep deprivation and impact their performance during testing.
In a survey conducted among Edison students, 87.5% of students are often stressed about the exams, and only get around five to six hours of sleep. Students shared how the time and effort they put into the class just to not get a passing grade is not worth the stress. And affect them in their daily lives.
For seniors taking AP courses, it feels repetitive since many have gone through previous AP exams, which gives them a better idea of what to look forward to. Although they still face challenges of balancing studying and other classes and time management as exams approach.
Aliyah Pargan, a senior taking two AP classes, shared that the biggest challenge she continues to face is time management with balancing AP work and other classes as they build up.
“The time management with other classes, because I have other homework and assignments to do, and then AP class just adds on weight, especially because they give more work and it’s more steps to prepare for the exam,” Aliyah Pargan said.
Although she has experienced the process of taking an AP before, managing time is difficult. Like many students, Aliyah stayed home and dedicated the entire day to studying before exam day.
Besides her studies, a big priority for Aliyah is her will-being. She takes breaks between studying to keep reducing stress and still enjoys things she likes to do.
“I take a break from what I’m studying, and I just do self time for myself, whatever, spending time with family, listening to music, or just hanging out with my pet,” Aliyah said.
Aside from students having to do hours of studying and planning how to track their time. They also feel the pressure from teachers as they have high expectations for their students to score that 4 or 5s.
Ethan Samuel, a Junior taking one AP class this year explained how teachers would add more pressure to them as the exam approaches which tends to build stress among them.
“My teacher started putting a little more effort into it and we started reviewing a lot more and taking it very seriously. They always make it seem like it’s a lot bigger than it is. It stresses me out a little bit,” Samuel said.
Some students feel pressure from teachers as they have expectations for students, which affect their studying process and make them feel unprepared. As the exam approaches stress increases but for students, like Samuel, they push through and get ready to get exams over with.
Most students know the pressure that comes with taking AP but still take them as they look for success within school and know it can be a weight on their back but still do their best because they know it can affect their grades.
“Our mental health is always low; we knowingly chose to take harder classes and understand the stress that comes with it, so at times it motivates us to do better but sometimes it does drag us down,” Dulce, a senior, shared.
Although students know the impact it has on their mental health, many push themselves as they do because of a feeling of academic success and seeing their hard work pay off, like Dulce.
Within Edison, students always look for sources that will help them succeed. The school offers tutoring which has been a huge help among students, but due to last minute schedules changes in the last few months it impacted students’ studies.
“Tutoring was a huge lifesaver for a couple of classes, sometimes the schedules of the school don’t help but we make it work,” Dulce said.
For many students at Edison it’s more than just preparing for an exam as it puts them to the test to see how they balance both academics and mental strength. With all the pressure and stress, students continue to give it their best and not let anything distract them while still taking time to take care of their mental health.
