FMT, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Free Malaysia Today

By: Tyler Yip

Stress is a guaranteed part of all major parts of your life. Whether it be starting a new semester or trying something new, stress is going to be part of it. For many students at St. Augustine, stress is a normal part of the day. From studying for tests or meeting new people, stress is a part of each and every student’s daily school life. Even though stress may seem to be overwhelming at times, there are countless ways to deal with it to ensure that it does not take up other aspects of your life. 

At school, it tends to increase during intense moments when assignments are piling up or when exam period is creeping up. This happens for all students regardless if you’ve experienced it multiple times or if it’s the first. Despite this constant pressure,management methods can turn stress from a negative into a positive. There are many different ways and methods to ensure that stress can be used in a way to help you complete tasks quicker and more efficiently. Here are three ways recommended by the NHS. 

  1. Try to have a healthy lifestyle. You can do this by sleeping longer, eating healthy and ensuring you eat all three meals, and taking time for yourself away from possible stressors.
  2. Try breathing exercises or meditation exercises. These can be found on youtube or you can even complete breathing exercises on personal time by spending time with yourself and taking a breather. 
  3. Keep track of your work. Being organized, resourceful, and having good time management can ensure you complete work earlier than the due date which can help reduce the amount of stress you have before other big assignments or tests. 

These tips and tricks from the NHS are a perfect way to turn these negatives from stress into positives. They can help increase your productivity and overall well being in and out of school. However, these tips and tricks may not seem relatable or implementable due to extracurricular activities. That is why I asked one of our own St. Augustine students to provide a quick overview of their daily school life and how they manage stress in and out of school. 

Abhijay is a 10th grade STREAM student at our school.

Tyler: Hi Abhijay, can you give a little overview of your daily schedule. What do you do in a day?

Abhijay: Hey Tyler, on a typical day I wake up, take a shower, catch the 6:30 bus to school, go through the normal school day, then I come back home and work on some school work. After that, I work on some extracurricular activities including AP courses, hackathons, web freelancing, and tennis.

Tyler: Wow that seems like a very busy schedule, how do you deal with all the stress from the amount of work?

Abhijay: I order my work from least to highest priority and how much time it takes to complete it. I start my tasks in a day with the easier assignments in order to build momentum to work on the bigger projects because the most overwhelming part of all this work is getting started. I focus on taking initiative and time management of all my activities and school work. 

Tyler: Thank you for your insight on this topic Abhijay.

In the end, stress can be a controlling factor over the lives of many St. Augustine students. The heavy workload tallied up with your life outside of school feels like a lot but there are ways to deal with stress, by using tips and tricks from online platforms or even just asking a fellow classmate for help. 

Work Cited

“Student stress.” NHS, https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/help-for-teenagers-young-adults-and-students/student-stress-self-help-tips/. Accessed 4 March 2025.