BY HANNAH GRAHAM

 

Yet again my school is going through a set of mock exams - our third since last summer.

 

These exams are great practice for the real GCSEs that will take place in May and June, however the excessive amount of practice exams that take place add a lot of stress and worry to the already fragile minds of young people.

 

It’s hard enough revising years of work and preparing yourself for these important exams, so adding extra revision and exam stress is really not a good idea.

 

Three sets of mocks cut it really fine before the real exams, leaving little or no time to prepare ourselves mentally for the great stresses that exams bring.

 

Should the mocks not go as planned and the results not reflect what we envision ourselves achieving, additional pressure is added to our workloads.

 

We’re constantly trying to do better, as we are always told that we are in competition with the rest of the country and feel that trying to just do our best isn’t good enough.

 

We are expected to put 110 per cent effort into everything we do, however this is not possible and, speaking statistically, there are simply not enough hours in the day to go to school, complete homework and revision tasks, complete daily activities like extra curricular clubs and socialising and still get that important eight to 10 hour sleep.

 

I haven’t slept a full, non-interrupted 10-hour sleep in over a year because I - and many other young people currently in this intense stage of education - am under a lot of pressure which can lead to mental health issues, stress and in extreme cases, conditions such as insomnia.

 

This is a terrible cycle and, if not controlled, can carry on to A-levels, college and university, causing years upon years of endless stress and unhappiness that has massive impacts on our current lives and our futures