Academic Pressure

It's like a pressure cooker in here! No doubt, school is tough. For some, it's the worry of

being able to get enough credits to graduate high school, while for others it's being able to get a

4.0 GPA and get into Stanford. No matter what our goals are, we all struggle with a tremendous

amount of stress and pressure. At school there is a range of academic pressure we feel, derived

from a need for perfection, worry over grades, parental pressure, competition, sports, or a tough

class load. Academic pressure does not begin in college. The nervous breakdowns, panic attacks,

burnouts, and depression are also apparent in many younger students. The same situation is not

always stressful for all people, and all people do not undergo the same feelings or off-putting

thoughts when stressed. Having a strong support network to fall back on when times get tough at

school is critical to staying upbeat and maintaining a big picture perspective. Friends can be the

best people to relieve your stress, but they can also be the reason behind the stress. Choose the

friends that will be positive and supportive when the going gets tough. Having a good group of

friends at help you maintain a healthy and enjoyable lifestyle.

External Factors

External forces also create academic pressure. Many of us fail in the subject of time

management and excel at procrastination. The cure requires dedication and commitment. Set up a

schedule, or set a timer. When you watch T.V., play video games, or surf the web, set a timer for

30 minutes. Time allocation helps divide the hours to reasonable amounts so you are not left at the

11th hour to complete homework. Some students just want to take the easy way out and cheat.

They may have jobs after school to support their family or themselves, which carries a higher

priority for them than school work. In the same context, many students feel that excelling in sports

is a higher priority than school. Others may resort to cheating to make up for their lack of academic

motivation or live up to the standards set up by older siblings or parents.

Managing Pressure
 There are many healthy ways to deal with academic pressure. If you don’t feel motivated

about a subject, arrange a study group. Reward yourself after completing every section. Other ideas

include:

 Finish your work at a nearby café or library if the environment at home is not the best.

 If you play sports or work, take time to plan your hours to include more study time as well.

 If you know you have a big game coming up where you will be out for long practices, work

ahead. Ask your teachers for assignments for the days you won't have sufficient study time.

 Make sure you maintain good sleeping and eating habits and, from time to time, go out for

a run, a ride on your bike, and exercise. These will help alleviate your stress and get your

body moving!

Academic Pressure & Cheating Up

in the mornin' and out to school The teacher is teachin' the Golden Rule American

history and practical math You studyin' hard and hopin' to pass Workin' your fingers right down

to the bone – Chuck Berry,

School Days Ring! Ring! That lethal sound can only mean one thing; it is September and

school is back in session, and along with it are the wandering eyes, cheat sheets, stolen tests, and

technology, of course. Cheating has become the method of survival, the only way to reach and

maintain the top for many… but there are better routes to reach number one while keeping your

integrity intact. Cheating does not make you a smarter or better person. If you set reachable

goals, study hard, and get outside help, you can succeed academically without cheating. The key

to keeping your integrity is to not stay up late doing non-school related activities and fall back on

cheating when time runs out. People also resort to cheating when they have been pressured too

much by their parents, or even by themselves. Finally, if you are ever caught cheating, the

teacher who catches you will tell the rest of your teachers, and their trust in you and your college

recommendation letters go out the window.

When Friendly Competition Goes Too Far

I can speak from experience when it comes to that less-than-helpful sort of competition

between my friends and me that, often times, has been the cause of much of my academic stress.

For myself, I didn't want to let my parents or myself down by failing, but I also didn't want to fall

below the standards of my friends. And when your friends are all in the running for being the

class valedictorian, it’s hard! But it's important to set your own goals and take on your own

responsibility. It's good to be proud of other's accomplishments, but it's important to be proud of

your own hard work as well. So every once in a while, make sure to give yourself a pat on the

back!

Last Reviewed: October 2013

Sargunjot Kaur, High School Student Writer Sargunjot Kaur, High School Student Writer Palo

Alto Medical Foundation Nancy L. Brown, Ph.D., M.A., Ed.S Nancy L. Brown, Ph.D., M.A., Ed.S

Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Stanford Report, February 23, 2005

Pressure for good grades often leads to high stress, cheating, professors say
By: Barbara Palmer

Eric Roberts, professor of computer science, readily admits that there is an "oversupply"
of student honor code violations in the Computer Science Department, where the temptation to
cheat is as close as the nearest paper recycling bins or the "trash" folders on computer desktops.
But when it comes to plagiarism, it seems no academic discipline is immune: Associate Professor
Debra Satz in the Department of Philosophy discovered that students apparently had taken material
from an online source when writing papers about the philosopher and ethicist John Rawls.
For Roberts, Satz and other Stanford faculty and lecturers who spoke last week during an
"Everyday Ethics" forum sponsored by the Program in Ethics in Society, the relationship between
stress and cheating in an academic environment is not simply a problem of student integrity.
(Anonymous surveys of students self-reporting their own violations of the honor code show that
the level of academic integrity has improved since 1997, when the honor code was revised to give
students more responsibility in maintaining standards, said Roberts, the faculty co-chair for the
Board of Judicial Affairs, in an interview after the panel.)
Instead, panelists linked cheating to the social pressure put on students to prize high grades
over education and other values, including creativity and imagination.
Pressure by parents and schools to achieve top scores has created stress levels among
students—beginning as early as elementary school—that are so high that some educators regard it
as a health epidemic, said Denise Clark Pope, a lecturer in the School of Education and the author
of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic and
Miseducated Students. "The number one cause of visits to Vaden Health Center used to be
relationships, but now is stress and anxiety," she said.
When Pope shadowed five students at an area high school for a year in order to research
the sources of high-achieving students' intellectual engagement, she found instead that students
spent most of their time "finagling the system" in pursuit of grades. "In every class where a test
was administered, there was cheating," Pope said. Students feel as if their life success depends on
getting the top SAT scores and the highest grades, she added. The students "know [cheating] is
wrong; they tell me they wish they didn't do it," she said. "But they feel like the most important
thing they do is get the grades, by hook or by crook."
Although some students have told Roberts that cheating was part of the culture in their high
schools, the motive for cheating is high in the intensely competitive computer science field, he
said. Students are drawn to the discipline because of the potential for high income, and unlike in
other more subjective fields, "the computer is completely unforgiving as an arbiter of correctness."
Roberts has initiated measures designed to ease the pressure, including using a "more
subtle" grading system than standard letter grades and issuing a number of discretionary "late days"
at the beginning of a quarter so that students don't have to ask for extensions. His department also
has "armies" of helpers available to students, he said. "I encourage people to work together and to
look for help—where it's legitimate."
Roberts said he makes a distinction between inadvertent plagiarism and deliberate
academic theft. "I'm not concerned with someone who doesn't understand that they are doing
something wrong. Anything that can be considered a teachable moment—in the sense that we are
trying to explain what academic integrity is—ought to be a teachable moment."
 When students write, "mistakes are made," said Hilton Obenzinger, an author and lecturer
in the Department of English. In his view, students who forget a footnote shouldn't be brought up
on charges. "It is true that if you are so sloppy it becomes egregious, then it can become a criminal
thing," he said. But if historian Stephen Ambrose, whose books have been found to contain
plagiarized passages, "can get pressured, if other historians can make a mistake, students will make
a mistake," he added.
Obenzinger said he is more concerned that plagiarism is overemphasized. A whole slew of
writers, including Mark Twain, have inadvertently used others' material, he pointed out. "Every
scholar deals with this. The remedy is more and more training."
Besides, in writing, "you have to steal things from other people," he said. "Shakespeare got
Hamlet from somewhere else. T. S. Eliot stole everything for The Waste Land, including the
footnotes. If people get paranoid about plagiarism in a way that restricts creativity, we have a more
serious problem—we have people who don't have imaginations."
Pope and others called for community-wide discussions about what constitutes success and
the value of individual differences. As it is, the educational systems risks "popping out robots who
are on treadmills, with very little time to reflect," she said.
We need ways to foster the notion that people are cheating themselves and their culture
when they cheat academically, "robbing us and impoverishing us by not thinking and creating,"
Roberts said. "But it's a big, uphill climb."
"Students are seeing what the world is like, what the downside is of not succeeding,"
countered Satz. "The steeper the gradient of inequality, the harder it is to simply talk values."
Updated September 02, 2019

The Dangers of Putting Too Much Pressure on Kids

By Amy Morin, LCSW
It's healthy to want to bring out the best in your child. But sometimes, parents put children under
so much pressure to perform well that their children suffer serious consequences.
Parents differ in their opinions about how much pressure kids need. In fact, a 2013 survey by the
Pew Research Center found that 64% of Americans say parents aren’t putting enough pressure
on children to do well in school.1 When kids don't get enough pressure from parents, they may
be less likely to perform at their best.
Other adults insist kids are under way too much pressure. They express concerns that kids can't
be kids anymore because they're constantly pressured to perform well so they get into the most
prestigious schools or get the best scholarships.
Of course, school isn’t the only place where parents put pressure on kids. Some parents put
pressure on kids to perform well in sports, music, theater or a vast number of other activities.
High-pressure parents may insist kids practice constantly and perform well in competitions.2
While high expectations can be healthy, placing constant pressure on children can be harmful.
When kids feel like each homework assignment is going to make or break their future or that
each soccer game could determine if they get a college scholarship, that pressure will have
negative consequences.
How Putting Too Much Pressure on Children Is Harming Them
Here are just a few of the dangers kids may experience when parents put them under enormous
amounts of pressure:
Higher rates of mental illness. Kids who feel like they’re under constant pressure may experience
constant anxiety. High amounts of stress can also place children at a greater risk of developing
depression or other mental health issues.
Self-esteem problems. Pushing kids to excel can damage their self-esteem. The constant stress to
perform interferes with children’s identity formation and causes them to feel like they’re not
good enough.
Sleep deprivation. Kids who feel constant pressure to do well in school may stay up late studying
and as a result, they may struggle to get enough sleep.
Higher risk of injuries. Athletes who feel a lot of pressure may continue to participate in sports
despite injuries. Ignoring pain or returning to a sport before an injury has healed could lead to
permanent damage.
Increased likelihood of cheating. When the focus is on achievement—rather than learning—kids
are more likely to cheat. Whether it’s a young child catching a glimpse of his neighbor’s answer
on a test, or a college student paying someone to write a term paper, cheating is common among
kids who feel pressure to perform well.
Refusing to participate. When kids feel the goal is to always “be the best,” they’re not likely to
participate when they aren’t likely to shine. A child who isn’t the fastest runner may quit playing
soccer and a child who isn’t the best singer in the group may quit choir. Unfortunately, that
means kids won’t take opportunities to sharpen their skills.