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This video is incredibly relatable to me and many other students. Tests would always make me incredibly anxious, even though I normally did well on them. The anxiety I got before a test made me skip the test altogether, and killed my grade in the class. Test anxiety is avoidable if you become more comfortable with tests. The speaker in this video describes how doing things like recreating the test environment, and changing your perspective can change how you approach tests.

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How to Beat Test Anxiety and Take on Exams Without Stress

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As an early college student who takes any opportunity I can to keep "sprinting", this video says just what I need to hear. My joy and happiness is a priority. Relaxing and being unproductive is okay. You can always start running again if you stop. Learning to say no, and picking up small beneficial habits help people have less on their plate.

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How to Stop Being Constantly Overwhelmed

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Motivation is something I struggle with a lot throughout school. Knowing I need to work but having no motivation causes me incredible amounts of stress. Being more active in classes from the start is the best way to keep your motivation. Not wanting to disappoint your professors, and keeping your classroom attitude consistent is a motivator to keep working. Keeping your workload low is another way to stay motivated, doing extracurriculars just for the recognition may not help as much as keeping all your focus on more important things.

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How to Stay Motivated for the Entire School Year

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While this article is speaking to the parents of stressed out students, the tips are applicable to all. Not being overscheduled, making sure to get lots of sleep and still have fun are seemingly simple solutions to school stress.

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When it comes to school stress, Hannah O'Brien has seen some extremes.

The 17-year-old junior at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, has witnessed students crying in class after getting low test scores, she says, while others have gone without sleep a few nights in a row to keep up with homework.

"I personally have seen so many of my closest friends absolutely break -- emotionally, physically, mentally -- under stress, and I knew a lot of it was coming from school work," she says.

School stress is serious business. A 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report suggests that for children and teens, too much work and too little play could backfire down the road. "Colleges are seeing a generation of students who appear to be manifesting increased signs of depression, anxiety, perfectionism and stress," the report says.
Young Kids Feel School Stress, Too
A great deal of the pressure and anxiety about school stems from the college admissions race, O'Brien says.

"Students are being really pushed to make great academic gains, with No Child Left Behind," says Jim Bierma, a middle-school counselor in St. Paul, Minnesota. "A lot of students are stressed out about college already - in junior high."

But younger kids feel pressured, too. Even among her elementary students in Harrisburg, Arkansas, school counselor Joy Holt sees academic stress. Young kids are terrified of failing the standardized tests now emphasized heavily during the school year, she says.

"Even the little ones, they know how important [testing] is, and they don't want to fail," Holt says. "They cry. They get sick. Students have actually thrown up on their test booklets."

Of course, not all students find the classroom such a crucible. But in today's landscape of high-stakes testing and frenzied college admissions, experts worry that school stress takes a toll on too many.

Here's what parents can do to help ease the burden.
1. Watch for signs of school-related stress.
With teens, parents should watch for stress-related behaviors, like purposely cutting themselves, or expressions of despair or hopelessness, however casual the comments may sound. "Those are off-hand remarks that you need to take seriously," Pope says.

Younger kids may have more subtle signs of school stress, like headaches, stomachaches or reluctance to go to school, she adds.
2. Teach kids time-management skills.
With today's heavy homework loads, time-management and organizationalskills are crucial weapons against stress, experts say.

Teach kids to budget their time wisely with homework. "Try to do something every night instead of cramming at the last moment," says Delores Curry, a California high school counselor and secondary level vice president of the American School Counselor Association.
Stress-Relieving Homework Tips

Teach your kids to use a planner to keep track of assignments, says middle-school counselor Bierma. When they finish each assignment, kids can check them off for a feeling of accomplishment.

If kids struggle with tracking their homework, help them by following along with homework if their school posts assignments online.

Give your child a quiet place to study, free of distractions, away from TV and video games.

If possible, have kids study earlier rather than later in the day. "The later it is for most students, the shorter their attention span," Bierma says.

Ask the school about resources if your child is struggling academically, Bierma says. Many schools now have homework clubs, math clubs, and tutoring programs after school.

Over-scheduling is a big source of school stress, experts say. Many high-school students enroll in more Honors or Advanced Placement courses than they can handle, and then pile extracurricular activities on top, says Denise Clark Pope, PhD, a lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education in Stanford, California, and author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students.

If parents filled their kids' schedules with more sleep, down time, and family time, Pope says, "We would not be in the situation we are today. It would be that dramatic of a change."

As a fellow student, O'Brien agrees: "Kids are so consistently worried about keeping up with 'what's next' and 'what's next,' that it's hard to sit down and say, 'Wow, I'm stressed out. Let's find out why.'"

Elementary students can be over-scheduled, too, Holt says. "There are so many things to do now. It's not like you just go outside and play. Now there are clubs, sports, ballet, gym - plus you're trying to get homework in there," she says. "As a society, we're just in a whirlwind. We've forgotten: We are dealing with children."

Some children thrive under a "driven schedule," the AAP report says. "However, for some children this hurried lifestyle is a source of stress and anxiety and may even contribute to depression."

The challenge is to strike a balance between work and play. If your child feels overly stressed and overwhelmed, look for ways to cut back on school work and extra activities - though that's not easy for overachievers to hear.

"Kids just have this idea that they need to be Superman," O'Brien says.
4.Encourage sleep, exercise - and family mealtimes
Worried about the physical and emotional costs of academic stress, Pope founded the Stanford-based "Stressed-Out Students" (SOS) program. SOS partners with middle schools and high schools to survey kids' stress levels and find ways to reduce stress in school.

"There has been a serious problem with sleep deprivation," Pope says. "It's not unusual for 30% or 40% of [the students] to get 6 hours or less. Almost none are getting the required hours that an adolescent needs - which is 9 ½ hours." Adequate sleep alone would make a big difference in teens' stress levels, she says.

Holt advises exercise to help cope with stress. "If all you have is academics," she says," [stress] is going to build up, and it's got to go somewhere. It's going to help if kids are being physically active."

Both Holt and Pope agree: Family time is also crucial for cushioning stress. Pope suggests mealtimes as a way to connect with your child - "a minimum of 20 minutes sitting down together at least 4 to 5 times a week," she says. "Listen to your children, and communicate with them."
5. Watch the parental pressure.
Some parents may not realize they're making school stress worse by pressuring their kids to excel. But parents who want to ease kids' stress must shift their perspective, says Pope.

"Really think about how you're defining success in your family," she says. "If the first question out of your mouth is, 'How did you do on the history test today?' then you're sending a message that you value grades more than anything else." (And worse: It could prompt academic cheating.)

Instead, Pope suggests asking: "What's the best thing that happened to you today?" "Did you learn anything exciting or new?" At first, the conversations may be awkward. "It's going to take some practice," Pope says. "But just asking the questions in that way is starting to send the right message."

It's not easy for some parents to let up. As the AAP report says: "Even parents who wish to take a lower-key approach to child-rearing fear slowing down when they perceive everyone else is on the fast track." Try to keep in mind that a few, low test grades won't torpedo your child's lifelong plans.
6. Keep the fun in childhood and teen years.
Kids often have too little unstructured time to relax and play, experts say - from a leisurely bike ride with friends to a Saturday hanging out at the beach.

"I hate to say it, but school is almost their job," Holt says of her elementary students. "And you know how stressful jobs can be. If you don't go and have fun and forget about it for a little while, you're just going to take it with you the next day. And are you going to perform as well?"

"Remember to have fun in your high school career," Hughes says, "because I see a lot of kids letting the stress consume them."

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For children and teens, too much work and too little play can backfire, leading to signs of depression, anxiety, perfectionism and stress.

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This article goes over ways to prioritize yourself and relieve stress. rather than fixing the stressors, it recommends taking more time for yourself and doing things like yoga and reading.

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Most students experience significant amounts of stress. This can significantly affect their health, happiness, relationships, and grades. Learning stress management techniques can help these students avoid negative effects in these areas.

Why Stress Management Is Important for Students

A study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that teens report stress levels similar to adults. This means teens are experiencing significant levels of chronic stress and feel their stress levels generally exceed their ability to cope effectively.

Roughly 30% of the teens reported feeling overwhelmed, depressed, or sad because of their stress.

Stress can also affect health-related behaviors. Stressed students are more likely to have problems with disrupted sleep, poor diet, and lack of exercise. This is understandable given that nearly half of APA survey respondents reported completing three hours of homework per night in addition to their full day of school work and extracurriculars.

Common Causes of Student Stress

Another study found that much of high school students' stress originates from school and activities, and that this chronic stress can persist into college years and lead to academic disengagement and mental health problems.

Top Student Stressors

Common sources of student stress include:

School

Homework

Extracurricular activities

Social challenges

Transitions (e.g., graduating, moving out, living independently)

Relationships

Pressure to succeed

Work

High school students face the intense competitiveness of taking challenging courses, amassing impressive extracurriculars, studying and acing college placement tests, and deciding on important and life-changing plans for their future. At the same time, they have to navigate the social challenges inherent to the high school experience.

This stress continues if students decide to attend college. Stress is an unavoidable part of life, but research has found that increased daily stressors put college-aged young adults at a higher risk for stress than other age groups.

Making new friends, handling a more challenging workload, feeling pressured to succeed, being without parental support, and navigating the stresses of more independent living are all added challenges that make this transition more difficult. Romantic relationships always add an extra layer of potential stress.

Students often recognize that they need to relieve stress. However, all the activities and responsibilities that fill a student's schedule sometimes make it difficult to find the time to try new stress relievers to help dissipate that stress.

10 Stress Management Techniques for Students

Here you will learn 10 stress management techniques for students. These options are relatively easy, quick, and relevant to a student's life and types of stress.

Get Enough Sleep

Students, with their packed schedules, are notorious for missing sleep. Unfortunately, operating in a sleep-deprived state puts you at a distinct disadvantage. You're less productive, may find it more difficult to learn, and may even be a hazard behind the wheel.

Research suggests that sleep deprivation and daytime sleepiness are also linked to impaired mood, higher risk for car accidents, lower grade point averages, worse learning, and a higher risk of academic failure.

Don't neglect your sleep schedule. Aim to get at least 8 hours a night and take power naps when needed.

Use Guided Imagery

Guided imagery can also be a useful and effective tool to help stressed students cope with academic, social, and other stressors. Visualizations can help you calm down, detach from what's stressing you, and reduce your body's stress response.

You can use guided imagery to relax your body by sitting in a quiet, comfortable place, closing your eyes, and imagining a peaceful scene. Spend several minutes relaxing as you enjoy mentally basking in your restful image.

Consider trying a guided imagery app if you need extra help visualizing a scene and inducting a relaxation response. Research suggests that such tools might be an affordable and convenient way to reduce stress.

Exercise Regularly

One of the healthiest ways to blow off steam is to get regular exercise. Research has found that students who participate in regular physical activity report lower levels of perceived stress. While these students still grapple with the same social, academic, and life pressures as their less-active peers, these challenges feel less stressful and are easier to manage.

Finding time for exercise might be a challenge, but there are strategies that you can use to add more physical activity to your day. Some ideas that you might try include:

Doing yoga in the morning

Walking or biking to class

Reviewing for tests with a friend while walking on a treadmill at the gym

Taking an elective gym class focused on leisure sports or exercise

Joining an intramural sport

Recap

Exercise can help buffer against the negative effects of student stress. Starting now and keeping a regular exercise practice throughout your lifetime can help you live longer and enjoy your life more.

Take Calming Breaths

When your body is experiencing a stress response, you're often not thinking as clearly as you could be. You are also likely not breathing properly. You might be taking short, shallow breaths. When you breathe improperly, it upsets the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body.

Studies suggest this imbalance can contribute to various physical symptoms, including increased anxiety, fatigue, stress, emotional problems, and panic attacks.

A quick way to calm down is to practice breathing exercises. These can be done virtually anywhere to relieve stress in minutes.

Because they are fast-acting, breathing exercises are a great way to cope with moments of acute stress, such as right before an exam or presentation. But they can also help manage longer-lasting stress such as dealing with relationships, work, or financial problems.

Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

Another great stress management technique for students that can be used during tests, before bed, or at other times when stress has you physically wound up is progressive muscle relaxation ( PMR).

This technique involves tensing and relaxing all muscles until the body is completely relaxed. With practice, you can learn to release stress from your body in seconds. This can be particularly helpful for students because it can be adapted to help relaxation efforts before sleep for a deeper sleep.

Once a person learns how to use PMR effectively, it can be a quick and handy way to induce relaxation in any stressful situation, such as bouts of momentary panic before a speech or exam, dealing with a disagreement with your roommate, or preparing to discuss a problem with your academic advisor.

Listen to Music

A convenient stress reliever that has also shown many cognitive benefits, music can help relieve stress and calm yourself down or stimulate your mind depending on what you need in the moment.

Research has found that playing upbeat music can improve processing speed and memory. Stressed students may find that listening to relaxing music can help calm the body and mind. One study found that students who listened to the sounds of relaxing music were able to recover more quickly after a stressful situation.

Students can harness the benefits of music by playing classical music while studying, playing upbeat music to "wake up" mentally, or relaxing with the help of their favorite slow melodies.

Build Your Support Network

Having emotional support can help create a protective buffer against stress. Unfortunately, interpersonal relationships can also sometimes be a source of anxiety for students. Changes in friendships, romantic breakups, and life transitions such as moving away for college can create significant upheaval and stress for students.

One way to combat feelings of loneliness and make sure that you have people to lean on in times of need is to expand your support network and nurture your relationships.

Look for opportunities to meet new people, whether it involves joining study groups or participating in other academic, social, and leisure activities.

Remember that different types of relationships offer differing types of support. Your relationships with teachers, counselors, and mentors can be a great source of information and resources that may help you academically. Relationships with friends can provide emotional and practical support.

Recap

Widening your social circle can combat student stress on various fronts and ensure you have what you need to succeed.

Eat a Healthy Diet

You may not realize it, but your diet can either boost your brainpower or sap you of mental energy. It can also make you more reactive to the stress in your life. As a result, you might find yourself turning to high-sugar, high-fat snacks to provide a temporary sense of relief.

A healthy diet can help combat stress in several ways. Improving your diet can keep you from experiencing diet-related mood swings, light-headedness, and more.

Unfortunately, students are often prone to poor dietary habits. Feelings of stress can make it harder to stick to a consistently healthy diet, but other concerns such as finances, access to cooking facilities, and time to prepare healthy meals can make it more challenging for students.

Some tactics that can help students make healthy choices include:

Eating regularly

Carrying a water bottle to class

Keeping healthy snacks such as fruits and nuts handy

Limiting caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol intake

Find Ways to Minimize Stress

One way to improve your ability to manage student stress is to look for ways you cut stress out of your life altogether. Evaluate the things that are bringing stress or anxiety into your life. Are they necessary? Are they providing more benefits than the toll they take on your mental health? If the answer is no, sometimes the best option is just to ditch them altogether.

This might mean cutting some extracurricular activities out of your schedule. It might mean limiting your use of social media. Or it might mean learning to say no to requests for your time, energy, and resources.

While it might be challenging at first, learning how to prioritize yourself and your mental well-being is an important step toward reducing your stress.

Try Mindfulness

When you find yourself dealing with stress-whether it's due to academics, relationships, financial pressures, or social challenges-becoming more aware of how you feel in the moment may help you respond more effectively.

Mindfulness involves becoming more aware of the present moment. Rather than judging, reacting, or avoiding problems, the goal is to focus on the present, become more aware of how you are feeling, observe your reactions, and accept these feelings without passing judgment on them.

Research suggests that mindfulness-based stress management practices can be a useful tool for reducing student stress. Such strategies may also help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.

A Word From Verywell

It is important to remember that stress isn't the same for everyone. Figuring out what works for you may take some trial and error. A good start is to ensure that you are taking care of yourself physically and emotionally and to experiment with different stress relief strategies to figure out what works best to help you feel less stressed.

If stress and anxiety are causing distress or making it difficult to function in your daily life, it is important to seek help. Many schools offer resources that can help, including face-to-face and online mental health services. You might start by talking to your school counselor or student advisor about the stress you are coping with. You can also talk to a parent, another trusted adult, or your doctor.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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Top 10 Stress Management Techniques for Students

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If you are a stressed student, finding ways to cope with stress is essential for your health. Discover some of the best stress management techniques for students.