Got the study blues? How to cope with academic stress

Many AUCians would not relate to this quote nowadays; simply because they are worried about their mid­terms, thesis papers and project submissions.

As the semester comes to an end AUC students feel more stressed than ever. Now is when procrastina­tors regret their procrastination, lazy students say good bye to their reclin­ers and open their books, as for hard workers, that actually finish their work as soon as they can, that’s when their sense of accomplishment kicks in.

Although academic stress is appar­ent in many AUCians’ lives, this semester is kind of special. Why? Simply because of the two week sus­pension of campus that lead to the squeezing of academic material.

Picture an empty jar that gets filled with marbles until it is full. Now pic­ture the exact same jar getting filled with more marbles than it can take. Congratulations, you have now expe­rienced what many AUCians feel these days.

It is3 amnow, you read three chap­ters on the Middle Ages and you have three more to go before your history final exam starts in the morning. Your cup of coffee doesn’t seem to be helping anymore. Maybe if you didn’t waste so much time checking Facebook and Twitter you would have finished your work.

“This semester is one of the most stressful semesters I’ve experienced since my three years in AUC. Normally I’m not the type of student that gets stressed easily but at some point I felt like I couldn’t handle all my assign­ments and exams,” said a business major student.

AUCians deal with their academic stress in different ways. One unorth­odox yet infamous way is to take the study pill Adderall. Although Adderall is a medication prescribed for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), students consume it to help them get through these tir­ing nights of studying.

“I struggle to sit on my desk for long hours to study and I get easily distracted, but when I take Adderall, I feel happy that I’m studying and I grasp all the required knowledge from the first read.” This is how Kareem Ameen, political science senior, copes with his academic stress these days.

Adderall is not very famous among AUC students as it is with western stu­dents because the pill is hard to find inEgypt.

Some AUCians like Kareem man­age to get it from abroad whenever a friend is coming from theU.S.

“I am very stressed these days because I have a lot of midterms com­ing up and a thesis paper. During the days that I have many midterms in one week I feel extremely stressed. I go to Ain-Sokhna whenever I can to try and cope with my stress. I’m the champion of procrastination just like many other AUCians,” 21-year-old Omar Bakry, a mechanical engineer­ing student said.

“This semester I’m taking all con­centration 400 [level] courses so I’m dealing with a lot of stress. To deal with these issues I usually go diving whenever I can just to get exposed to another world that is stress-free,” said Mohamed Magdy another mechanical engineering student.

The Office of Student Support, whom we couldn’t get to interview because of their extremely busy schedule, told The Caravan that all appointments are booked this week. Looks like there are a lot of AUC stu­dents that are seeking mentors and counselors for advice in dealing with stress.

Professional aid is provided to the students in the shape of moral sup­port and continuous follow-up ses­sions to ensure an alert student.

“The mentor asks about what courses I am taking, what responsibil­ities I have, which assignment is more difficult, etc.” Mahmoud Salama, political science junior, told The Caravan.

“The first time I went to my mentor, she asked me to fill her in on all my academic concerns. During my sec­ond session she followed up on what I was supposed to be submitting,” Salama added.

When Salama went to his first men­toring session he was given advice, moral support and time-management tips. He was put on the right track and given a head start to how he’s going to deal with his academic stress. “At the end of the day it is our choice whether we will do the assigned work and studies or not,” Salama said.

“It is all about time-management,” a senior history major student told The Caravan.

A scientific study done by students in the US concluded that “Students who perceived control of their time reported significantly greater evalu­ations of their performance, greater work and life satisfaction, less role ambiguity, less role overload, and fewer job-induced and somatic tensions.”

The study makes a lot of sense.

If you’re aware of the amount of time you have, and how much of that time you actually produce something, at that point you will be able to be pro­ductive and enjoy a smoother life.

Another study on academic-related stress, done by psychology undergrad­uates inSoutheasternUniversity, sug­gested that “anxiety, problem-focused coping, and support from signifi­cant others may serve as potentially important predictors of the academ­ic-related stress experienced by col­lege students.”

Time-management is crucial and self-actualization is a weapon, if mas­tered, one can achieve his or her goals whether on or off campus.