By Brittany Kelly

Laurie Pratt says it's true.
"Some students may think teachers conspire against them to make exams on the same day," said Pratt, counsellor at Loyalist College.
"In reality that's just the way it is."
It is the student's job to manage that stress and that is important to their development.
"You learn skills throughout the course of the semester and now is where you put everything together and demonstrate your ability to your professors," Pratt said.
Pratt said students would feel stressed by school because everything happens at once when the semester ends. She wants people to understand that if they are positive and feel that they will succeed that their self-talk is surprisingly helpful at their success during exams.
According to Debra O'Shaughnessy, a student success mentor at the college, the main things students are stressed about right now is trying to co-ordinate their due dates.
"The other thing that I think happens with students is that when you are planning all of this the end of April comes faster than you realize. Those last four weeks pass very quickly," said O'Shaughnessy.
Pratt said many people experience different feelings when they are stressed such as anxiety, shortness of breath, headaches, and lack of sleep. Pratt said students sometimes try to drink in order to put off their stress, but this is a bad technique.
"Mild stress is just feeling tense and from that comes...problems controlling your emotions, you either become very angry and snap on people or you cry a lot, so there is certainly a range of emotions. Heaviness in the pit of your stomach is also a symptom that you are stressed," said Pratt. "Time management is a skill that many students don't have so they will go without sleep which is not helpful. They will drink too much, to try and forget about the fact that they are so stressed, which does not help."
Pratt said one way students could combat stress is to attend the stress management seminars with student success mentors.
"Throughout the year the student success mentors run time management seminars that nobody shows up for," said Pratt. "I guess they don't have the time."
Zach Miron, an 18-year-old electrical technician student, has some advice about how to keep stress levels low, and said he does not get stressed because he is a pretty mellow person.
"I would suggest students just go with the flow," said Miron.
Pratt has just finished a degree at Wilfrid Laurier, so even as a teacher and counsellor said she recognizes the stress students are under but said there are many ways they can manage. Pratt said you could go to counselling or talk to your professors, as well; you could make a detailed schedule of your exams, and study according to that.
"Even when you are having trouble sleeping, try and get sleep. Do not pull all nighters, all nighters are not valuable, you will pay for it at one point. It is better to organize your time in a way that is manageable," said Pratt.
O'Shaughnessy said that when success mentors meet with students they sit down and come up with a plan, so students do not feel overwhelmed when they leave and they do not make poor decisions about their education.
"We go over what is due and how long it is going to take so after they do that they are calmer. By making, a schedule there may end up being more time than they realize. But they cannot procrastinate, either, because the work needs to be done," said O'Shaughnessy.
For more information about stress management visit Laurie Pratt or Valerie Geen in the Student Success Hub, visit the Health Centre, or visit the Student Success Mentor offices on the third floor at the school.

How to manage stress in the time crunch before summer holidays
* Make a plan and schedule important events
* Use support services available at Loyalist
* Get a peer tutor
* Talk to Health Centre staff
* Go to the Student Access Hub
* Eat Well
* Sleep properly and enough
* Go to time management workshops
* Don't build up stress levels mentally
* Make lists and use a daily planner
* Be Positive
* Do not try to bury stress in drugs and alcohol
* In some cases, depending on the severity, try compartmentalizing problems outside of exam preparation until after the already high-stress times pass.
* Be Aware that you are not alone and there is always someone there to help.