Post #29

Chapter 12

As finals approach for Shakopee students, as well as many other high schoolers, stress is an idea which is on everyone's mind whether we realize it or not. It dictates our lives and how we go about accomplishing tasks and our performance. Studying in preparation for a final exam can be considered the most stressful thing in a well applied student. To cope with stress, we may gain control of the situation in order to handle the situation. And this can be done in one of five ways: behavioral, cognitive, decisional, informational, and emotional. Behavioral and informational are the most applicable to schooling.

Behavioral control is the ability to step up and do something to reduce the impact of the situation. According to the text, students who are able to take advantage of this type of control are less likely to develop a drinking problem. This is because, when stressed people tend to outsource to alleviate the stress, in this study the outsource is alcohol. But also, if one were to take it from the test taking point of view, it can be made applicable to studying. By better preparing, studying, you are able to reduce the impact, worry or surprise, when taking the test. You will know the material from before hand so you will not stress as much over the material, because you already studied and know it.

Informational control is the ability to acquire information about a stressful event. The textbook gives the example of knowing what types of questions will be asked about on a test. In relation to this class, we take the online quizzes and the practice exams in preparation for a test. This way, the questions are formatted the exact same way and the information we need to know is directed towards us.

The two can be combined to create a prefect studying situation. By taking the initiative to study and knowing what to study, the test should be fairly easy and efficient.