by Caitlin Fletcher

It comes before finals, tests and homework assignments. According to junior Kelly Stokes, it can be extremely annoying at times and if it gets too out of hand it can overpower you. Yes, it is stress.

The Facts

In 2010 a survey was given by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program to freshman at UCLA to determine the emotional health and academic ability of freshman in four year programs.

“I only feel stressed sometimes, it just depends on how well I know the material,” STA freshman Lily O’Neill said. “I’m expecting finals to be just like a regular test so I’m not too stressed, but everyone else is making a bigger deal out of it.”

According to Anne Klein, a reporter for UCLA news, “Only 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was in the highest 10 percent or above average, a drop of 3.4 percentage points from 2009.”

“I’m not surprised the women are the ones who have lower emotional health,” Stokes said. “A lot of girls are more emotional because they’re really stressed out.”

“While students’ perceived emotional health took a downturn, their drive to achieve and their academic abilities are trending upward,” Klein said. “71.2 percent [of students] rated their academic abilities above average or in the highest ten percent. And 75.8 percent rated their drive to achieve in the same terms.”

The number of people, mostly women, who say their academics improved could be due to stress, proving that stress could be beneficial according to CIRP director John H. Pryor.

“I think the results of the survey would be the same [at STA] right now,” Stokes said. “I’m getting stressed about finals, and I know other girls are too. But sometimes stress can help motivate you to push yourself harder.”

Teacher Take

Math teacher Diana Blessen believes that stress is ever-present at STA, now during finals time and especially in the math department.

“I think there is so much stress in the girls here, and finals are stressful no matter what,“ Blessen said. “But I think [the girls] tend to get stressed about math.”

Math isn’t the only course that can be stressful. According to Blessen, other courses are stressful, but she believes students tend to stress out more over honors courses.

“Girls in honors courses are especially stressed because there’s just so much pressure,” Blessen said.

Students in honors courses tend to take more honors courses than one which increases their stress, according to Blessen. Yet, she believes that like the 71.2 percent of people in the study who said their academics improved, this stress can push students to do well in class, on homework and when they take their finals.

Honors Student

STA junior Mattie Davis takes Honors Pre Calculus and AP Language and Composition. She admits that she stresses herself out too much, especially in math.

“We have to teach ourselves the lessons in math sometimes and it can be really stressful,” Davis said. “I hate it and I complain about it but I think when finals come it will ultimately be helpful for me.”

She believes that this type of stress is important now more than ever because finals are a few days away.

“If I hear a test is easy I have less motivation to study for it, but if I hear it’s hard I get stressed and I study more,” Davis said. “I end up doing better on tests I’m stressed for.”

Regular Student

Stokes does not take any AP or Honors courses, but that does not mean her life is any less stressful. Stokes has to balance homework, studying for finals, babysitting and volunteering.

“I don’t get super stressed about everything, but now I’m cracking down because if I don’t I will probably end up more overwhelmed by everything,” Stokes said. “When I do get stressed I only think about what’s bothering me, it takes over.”

According to Stokes history can especially be a challenging course because there is so much information you have to absorb. She’s seen girls already start to over stress themselves for finals like these.

“I see lots of girls getting stressed,” Stokes said. “I usually notice my friends in honors classes are more stressed than my friends who aren’t, but it just depends on the person.”

According to Stokes sometimes these girls end up getting over stressed to the point where stress is no longer helpful. Although Stokes has to do a lot and that can get to her, she finds it easy to get back into her usual balance.

“I think stress is beneficial to a certain extent because if you’re stressed to the right level it pushes you to do better,” Stokes said. “But if you don’t have a balance and you’re super stressed all the time you just crash.”