A student returns home after a full day of school, only to open their planner and begin to tackle the long list of assignments that accumulated during the day. With no shortage of work to be done or tests to study for, some students can get stressed out. Freshman Masha Pivovarova says that the workload in school can cause her stress.

“I feel like I’m really stressed about the assignments that I have and the tests and exams,” Pivovarova said. “If I feel like I’m not prepared, I’m going to be stressed about it.”

Junior Marilu Benavente agrees that having large amounts of schoolwork to do has a negative effect on her.

“Sometimes it’s really hard to focus on one thing when it feels like I have ten million other things to do,” Benavente said.

Sophomore Eli Varchenko adds that, for people involved in sports, schoolwork can have an additional impact on their lives.

“Depending on if I have heaps of homework to do and I know it, it might affect my swimming,” Varchenko said. “As an athlete, I have to manage that and all of my homework.”

Senior Amelia Corney, who plays soccer, also finds that being involved in sports can add to feelings of academic stress.

“I would say that if you’re trying to do school and a sport, it gets pretty stressful,” Corney.

Corney believes that seniors are more prone to being stressed about school as well.

“I think, especially being a senior, there’s a lot of pressure to get good grades because you’re starting to send your transcripts off to a bunch of colleges,” Corney said.

Some students see that academic stress has effects on their lives. Pivovarova adds how stress impacts her.

“I feel like if I’m stressed about academics, I’ll do better, but it just affects me because I’ll get less sleep, I will be more tired, things like that,” Pivovarova said.

On the other hand, Corney thinks that stress worsens her performance in school.

“When I’m more stressed, I don’t do things as well and I rush,” Corney said.

Stress can have effects outside of school as well. Benavente comments on how her stress affects her life.

“I just feel like I have to put school over relationships with other people and hanging out with my friends,” Benavente said.

Corney experiences similar feelings.

“When I’m too stressed out, I definitely don’t feel like hanging out with my friends,” Corney said. “I just want to be by myself.”

Despite the different ways that academic stress affects her, Pivovarova finds ways to manage it.

“I try to get more sleep and organize things, just writing down the things that I need to do,” Pivovarova said. “That helps me see that there aren’t that many things.”

Corney uses organizational techniques to avoid stress.

“I use my planner a lot,” Corney said. “It tells me when things are due so I’m not stressing about them.”

Varchenko says that if students are stressed about schoolwork, the best thing to do is avoid distractions.

“Turn off the phone and stay away from music and all electronics in general,” Varchenko said.

Varchenko also believes that one of the best ways to avoid stress is to not let school take over.

“It just depends on finding the right balance,” Varchenko said.