Students air their feelings about stress

It’s that time of the semester when papers and mid terms start to pile up — and there’s no shortage of grievances to go along with them.

The academic system isn’t perfect and venting is a good way to release stress. Kwantlen students were asked what they find most frustrating about school.

Just Tillyer, 21, who studies psychology, said that he’d like to see more short- and long-answer tests, instead of multiple choice quizzes.

“It would be nice if there was more opportunity in terms of testing where students were expected to explain things,” said Tillyer.

Tillyer said he prefers written exams, so he can demonstrate in depth his grasp of the material.

Kim Blik, 22, who is in general studies, said mid-terms are her biggest stress. “Having [several] mid-terms on the same day is really stressful…and balancing work with school to pay the bills,” said Blik.

Students have different ways of coping with the stresses of school, finding some things more frustrating than others.

“Some profs hand out work that’s irrelevant to the classes. Some of the workload is just too much. Other than that, there’s nothing about school I really find bothersome. It’s just time consuming,” said Amar Badh, 19, who’s in general sciences.

Shane Kubeska, 21, who studies criminology, said he gets frustrated when teachers put emphasis on parts of the course that don’t appear on the exam. “Whatever is emphasized most on the exam should be emphasized in the lectures, so we know what to study.”

Kubeska said that he studies all the notes from class, but when there’s so much to cover, teachers should point out what the most important material is.