From time to time, every year, during the board result month, news of suicide among 10th and 12th students-makes the headlines of nation’s morning newspaper. History is filled with the incidents of student’s committing suicide during exams or on the day of result. The impact of exam fear on students is itself greater than that of exams. The amount of anxiety, depression and stress students receive from not only mentors but also from their parents who pushes their wards to an extreme level into getting better grades, could be traumatizing for a 15-18 year old teenager, results in causing a great impact on student’s behavior and actions, forcing them to extend their study hours by risking their health on daily basis.

What is actually responsible for this?

Is it the vast syllabus? Or our education system that is inclined more toward memorizing? The answer is NO. What can be a more influential cause for this, other than peer pressure?

What is peer pressure?

It is the change in an individual’s attitudes, values and behaviors influenced by a person or a group. Here it is relatable to call parents, classmates, mentors, and society to be the major cause of peer pressure for students. Meeting parent’s expectations is the biggest stressor among board students. Academic is a core part of a student life is prone to parent’s influence with growing expectations. Expecting their children to perform better and better in every next exam is nothing other than a daydream. Nowadays, Parents provide their wards with maximum facilities and in return hope them to keep achieving success without a single fail. In spite of looking at the hard work of their children, they focus solely on their grades and keep a blind eye on the number of efforts they put in their studies.

According to an estimate in India, an average of 6-7 students are committing suicide every day due to peer pressure.

A word of advice to students

Hey folks! I know, Being a 10th or 12th standard student is pretty tougher than it seems.  I understand that everything gets intense around you during the board examinations. Days feel like hours and hours like minutes. No matter how much time given, it’s never sufficient enough; No matter how many rounds of revisions you went through, you never feel prepared or satisfied. “Boards result will decide your future”, “devote your complete focus on getting better grades in boards”; “your future depends on how you perform in your board exams”, these bits of advice comes floating in our ears every day. Don’t take them on your head. Listening to elder’s advice is what you should do but don’t stress yourself out thinking about these too much. Don’t let unnecessary stress cloud your confidence. We get too caught up chasing our influenced goals and end up stress ourselves on performing anywhere near average.

Don’t let the society’s definition of success dictate your ambitions and goals for the future.

An open letter to parents

It’s natural for parents to share the exam anxiety of your children during board examinations. It’s not only the students who feel stain during examinations, you were always on the sideline from their very first school exams. We generally believe that gaining social approval by filling into the society would motivate our children to perform well in the board examinations. But, peer pressure from society acts antagonistically to this belief. The amount of stress received from parents, school, and society generally leads to a decline in their academic performance. In spite of stressors, we should be our children’s stress buster. It is your job as a parent to help your child achieve the optimal balance between being too relaxed and being paralyzed by anxiety.

How to get rid of this peer pressure

• PAY ATTENTION: keep at keen eye at your children. Even if they perform underscore, don’t let them stress out. Motivate them to try performing better in the next test.
• SEMINARS: delivering few words of advice to board students every now and then, to keep them motivated and encourage them not to panic or stress because of their average or poor performance will help the students to keep moving on the right track.
• HEALTHY COMPETITION: rather than focusing on rewards, orient the students to pay attention to performing better at the individual level. Promoting healthy competition among peers will motivate them to be empathetic to each other.
• ACCEPTING FAILURES: we’ve all read great stories in the literature about winning after a number of failures. Mold every student to accept their failures in tests and put more efforts on their difficulties so that they can perform better during boards.
• DON’T RISK YOUR HEALTH: peer pressure mostly causes a great impact on student’s behavior and actions, forcing them to extend their study hours by risking their health on daily basis. Keep yourself hydrated and well nourished.
• SEEK MENTORS HELP: don’t feel shy asking solution for any difficulty you face during board examinations. Teachers are happy to help you. Visit then whenever you need an elder’s advice.
• SHORT-BREAKS: according to psychiatrists’ suggestions, students must be provided with short breaks and optimum leisure time for their mind as well as their physique to work most efficiently.
• PARENT’S FAITH: it is of great importance for children to present their parents with great marks. But don’t stress yourself too hard on this. Have a talk with your parents. Tell them about your difficulties. They are the biggest motivation for you to work hard.

Remember, it is necessary to have peace of mind to cope up with any difficulties that make their way into our lives. Don’t let peer pressure be a hurdle in your way of achieving your goal. Your grades should reflect your knowledge, hard work and determination only. Don’t let stress ruin it.

Work Hard, Be Healthy, Be Happy.