Over two-thirds of pupils feel like GCSE exam stress is one of the main causes of their unhappiness and isolation, a poll has found. Stress is characterized by a feeling of immense anxiety and is a high risk factor for ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attacks, heart disease, obesity and even mental illnesses such as depression if left unchecked.

I decided to ask 150 people from a variety of London schools who have either taken their GCSEs or are in the midst of doing so to see if they felt that GCSE exam stress made them feel unhappy or isolated while they were or are studying for them. The results go as followed: 108 people said they did feel that GCSE exam stress made them feel unhappy and isolated during their GCSEs while only 42 people said they didn’t. That’s 72% for yes and only 28% for no. This poll shows on average over two-thirds of people feel like GCSE exam stress was one of the main causes of their unhappiness and isolation.

I then interviewed one of the many students in the poll who voted yes the GCSE exam stress did make them feel isolated and unhappy. An anonymous student who had finished his GCSEs in the summer of 2018 and was happy to give me some insight into if and why she thought GCSE exam stress is one of the main causes of teenage unhappiness and isolation.

I first asked the now A level student why they thought GCSE exam stress had left them feeling isolated and unhappy and in response he stated that “I think that because of the amount of work there was to do and because it was made such a big deal that it led to lots of people ostracizing themselves because they thought that in order to do well and in order to achieve the grades they had been heavily pressurized to get they had to isolate themselves and work as hard as they could which obviously undoubtedly was because of stress.” His answer to the first of my six questions shows how he thinks that schools pressurize their students that it made them feel like working constantly was the only way to succeed and in turn that caused them to feel unhappy as they were isolating themselves from their friends and family.

He stated that “the relationship between my parents and I became really strained” when I asked him if the isolation had strained any of his relationships. He continued by saying that it was because “my sleeping schedule was messed up because of all the work I was doing which meant that I was incredibly tired and grouchy in the mornings.” He then added that “I had stressed myself out over these exams a lot of the time and it had led to a fractured relationship with my parents as I became very emotionally unstable.” This reply to my question just shows some of the countless examples of how GCSE exam stress had created a negative home environment for many of the students that undertake it.

I then questioned him about her opinion on if the GCSE pressure put on students to do well is too much in which he responded with the incredibly bold statement that “fundamentally the school puts pressure on the students because it makes them look good.” He then elaborated his answer by saying that “unless you’re applying to Oxford or Cambridge, for example, your GCSE grades don’t matter fundamentally, but if you wanted to do well then they would still matter personally.” By saying this, my interviewee is stating that in his experience schools care an immensely large amount about their GCSE grades and when schools talk about their achievements and what they are most proud of each year, as well as the national titles won for sports and the co-curricular prizes won by a few students, they always talk about GCSE results. In my opinion, some schools who are placed on a metaphorical pedestal generally think that the idea of telling respective parents or anyone else who’s interested in listening that the amount of students who got all 9s at GCSE increased by 4%, for example, because it makes them look better. Although making the school look better is among the things schools care about most, they also care about fundamentally creating a safe and comforting environment for their students which can be hard when the students are feeling pressurized because of exam stress. Fortunately, most schools have support systems that are in place to help students who are struggling or seeking help with certain problems such as exam stress, unhappiness and isolation. For example, form tutors, heads of years, councilors, et cetera...

As this article is primarily looking at some of the negative impacts of GCSE exam stress, I had to ask the student specifically in what ways did the exam stress negatively influence his life in which he replied by saying “the exam stress messed up my sleeping schedule and it messed up my eating schedule, so I was very tired all the time.” This response further shows how specific areas of the GCSE students life became “messed up” as the way that the GCSE exam stress made them feel caused them to create an inefficient, somewhat wrong schedule that caused him to change his other daily patterns in life to fit within that new schedule as the exam stress made them unintentionally think that there was nothing more important then revising and getting good grades which isn’t true in the slightest.

Just so I could look at both sides of the argument, I then asked my interviewee for what he thought were the positive ways exam stress had influenced his life? He instantly said that “It influenced my life in a positive way as I ended up doing very well, it was really nice to see all my hard work pay off, it was nice to see others proud of me as well as me being proud of myself and I think it instils a good work ethic within you which prepares you for your future within the world of work.” On the positive side of things, we can see how the stress actually made the person feel better about themselves in the end as people being proud of them made their unhappiness finally dissolve away to reveal the happiness that he had been hiding away for so long.

My final question revolved around the actual end result of his GCSEs and if he felt that the large amount of pressure, anxiety and stress that he felt was worth it in the end. He told me that “Yes, because they are results that will stay with you for the rest of your life regardless if they’re important to you or not and so its nice to know that all the work that you put in had finally paid off.” The final answer to my six question interview showed how in the end exam stress may have made him feel terrible inside and also was clearly one of the main causes of some of his deteriorating relationships, but he felt that it was all worth it as your results will always be with you no matter where you go, no matter what you do.

When I look at both the poll and my interview with one of the poll voters, there’s a clear positive correlation between GCSE exam stress and unhappiness and isolation. Although exam stress may not be the only reason teenagers in today’s society feel unhappy and isolated, by schools piling on a somewhat large amount of pressure to their students to do well, they can in some serious cases create an increasingly negative mind set for the students as they now think that if they don’t revise as much as they can for as long as they possibly can they won’t get good grades. This can cause them to isolate themselves from their family and friends which can cause serious strain to relationships and can make the students feel alone and unhappy.