Term four usually means one thing for senior secondary school students - exams.
Mike Tweed asks them how they're feeling, what they're expecting and if the ongoing effects of Covid-19 have impacted their studies.
Casie
Term four usually means one thing for senior secondary school students - exams.
Mike Tweed asks them how they're feeling, what they're expecting and if the ongoing effects of Covid-19 have impacted their studies.
Casie Glentworth and Sophia 'Unga-Cribb are preparing for their final few weeks at Whanganui High School.
They will soon be heading home for study leave and on to NCEA Level 13 exams.
Between them, they'll be sitting a wide array of subjects, from Spanish to physics to psychology.
'Unga-Cribb said Covid-19 had definitely had an impact on her studies, although this year's lockdown had been more manageable than last year's.
She did miss being able to visit the pantry for snacks "every 10 minutes" now school had resumed.
"The first time around we didn't have a clue how we were going to manage it, but this year was OK, we knew how to cope with things."
Because of Covid-19's interruptions, students were now entitled to extra credit for every five credits achieved, 'Unga-Cribb said.
"I would say I'm feeling good about exams, but I don't want to jinx myself.
"If we do go into another lockdown, there's talk about using our mock exam grades as our external ones.
"It's almost like we pass by default."
Glentworth said students had "learned how to learn during lockdown".
Those skills could now be used when it came to study leave at home.
"For me, this year doesn't seem as stressful as last year," Glentworth said.
"Those results in year 12 (NCEA Level 2) are the ones that go towards applications for university because Level 3 results don't come out in time.
"These year's exams are still important, but I'm not feeling the same amount of pressure."
They will both be attending university next year, with Glentworth starting a Bachelor of Arts majoring in education.
"Gap years don't exist in my family," said 'Unga-Cribb, who is the school's head girl.
"You're either off to uni or off to work.
"It's still pending, but I'm hoping to study psychology and history."
Collegiate year 13 student Ollie Bird is in the same boat as 'Unga-Cribb and Glentworth.
He said there were three weeks of classwork left, then study leave began.
"My first exam is two weeks after that," Bird said.
"I'm feeling pretty confident. With [NCEA] Level 3, it's a bit more 'pick and choose' when it comes to what exams you want to do.
"You just need three UE [university entrance] subjects and 56 credits."
For Bird, learning remotely during the lockdowns of the past two years hadn't been as productive as being in the classroom.
"I'm not much of a via-technology learner. I found it harder, that's for sure. I prefer to be in there and have examples and whatnot.
"To be fair, the teachers made it easy to deal with, though. Internal exams were pushed back and we had Zoom calls with most of them every couple of days."
Bird said he would be sitting NCEA exams for economics, geography, accounting, media studies and health, and if he aced them, tertiary education would be the next step.
Whanganui City College principal Peter Kaua said few of his students would be sitting NCEA exams this year, but that didn't mean they weren't entering into other career pathways.
"You've got to know your kids," Kaua said.
"We put them into whānau classes right when they arrive here, with 12 to 14 kids for every whānau teacher. Those teachers are the conduits between the school and the parents.
"That starts at year 9, so by the time the kids hit year 11, they have a fair idea of which directions these kids are going to go in and the options they've got."
If a student chose the university option, then City College would help them on that journey, Kaua said.
That wasn't the "be all and end all", however.
He said two students at the school had won the Prime Minister's Vocational Excellence Award in the past couple of years.
"This year it was won by a kid who was a real troublemaker in years 9 and 10. He just wanted to go farming, and couldn't understand why he had to be sitting in a classroom.
"When he got to year 11, we put him out to Ag [Challenge] for one day a week and 'boom', he was away. He got [NCEA] Level 1 and 2 in one year.
"He came back to school this year and said to me 'Hey matua, I'm leaving at the end of term three, I'll have my Level 3s by then and I've got a job lined up'.
"Sure enough, he knocked on my door at the end of term three and he was all done. Now he's shepherding up the [Whanganui] River."
Whanganui High School employs two fulltime councillors, Jacqui McKenzie and Terry Tubman.
McKenzie agreed with 'Unga-Cribb, in that students had coped much better with Covid-19 interruptions this year.
"Overall, I think they are doing pretty well.
"They've taken their school [mock] exams a lot more seriously as well, because they know things can change in an instant.
"After last year's lockdown, there was a lot of anxiety and a lot of worry about what was going to happen next."
Tubman said the sudden entry into alert level 4 in August had come as a shock to some students.
It wasn't just school and exams that students were worried about.
"It could even be uncertainty about where they are going to be living."
Personally, he had made a lot of referrals to other mental health providers since this year's lockdown.
"Suddenly, it was 'bang' and we were in it [lockdown]," Tubman said.
"It's not only senior students who are sitting exams, it affects students at all levels.
"I've had some year 10s who are a bit concerned as well."
There were some seniors who hoped another lockdown was announced because they had already aced their school exams, Tubman said.
"Their derived grades would be brilliant. Then there are those students who are in the opposite position."
McKenzie has been at Whanganui High School for the past 13 years, and she said there were far more issues that students had to deal with nowadays.
"Things like social media have had a huge impact.
"Students have constantly got access to everything and anything. There's a need for likes, and the constant need for feedback - 'I need to check what so-and-so has said about this photo'.
"I read something recently that when we were younger we were exposed to maybe one or two bad things a day, now you can be exposed to it 24 hours a day."
For Kaua, supporting his students, no matter what path they wanted to take, was crucial.
"A one-size-fits-all mentality is rubbish," he said.
"In another situation in another school, that troublemaker probably would have got booted out.
"University kids are always going to go there, and the system that's been set up for 160 years caters for that.
"It's how we operate with the other 90 per cent of them."
Spectrum Education CEO Karen Tui Boyes recently released a series of tips for managing exam stress.
The educator and public speaker said experiencing stress could be a good thing, and it caused your adrenalin to pump and allowed you to work longer hours and stay on task more.
Managing it was important, though.
"Too much stress can have a negative effect on your memory," she said.
"Of course memory is essential in an exam – ultimately, you are required to remember what you have learned and how to apply your knowledge to answer the questions."
Make a plan for the next five weeks
Do not leave it to chance. Draw up a timetable and stick to it. Place in the important features of your next weeks, meal times, sports practice, church etc and add your study around these. If you can, you may wish to lessen your out-of-school activities for the next five weeks and then you can devote your time to them after the exams.
Learn what you don't know
Of all the tips the most important in the past few weeks is to concentrate on learning the information you don't know.
Going over what you know is a waste of time – it might make you feel good, however, learning is learning what you don't know.
Pull out your old tests, assignments, practice exam papers and learn the questions you got wrong. This sounds simple, and it can be hard yet is the MOST IMPORTANT tip. Ask your teachers to help clarify confusions, google other teachers' lessons or search for study notes online to help.
Study in small segments
The best tip is to study for 20 minutes and take a five-minute break.
This is especially useful if motivation is lacking or the content is difficult.
During the five-minute break, ensure you leave the room so your brain knows you are on a break. You might choose to stretch, get some fresh air, do a few star jumps, eat some brain food, drink a glass of water and quickly check your social networking sites.
To help keep you on track, download the iStudyAlarm available for all smartphones.
Eat well
Just as an athlete prepares for the big game or race, eating well in the weeks before your exams is imperative.
Ensure you eat breakfast each day, as this will help minimise the bad stress.
Eat smaller meals throughout the day, rather than big meals, which take a huge amount of energy to digest. Decrease your sugar and caffeine intake and increase your water consumption.
Research shows eating an apple gives longer sustained focus than a cup of coffee.
Relax
To manage high-stress levels, ensure you do something each day to relax. It may be as simple as 10 long, slow breaths two to three times a day, some slow stretching, gentle swimming or jogging, meditation, yoga or any activity that helps you unwind and relax.
Avoid screen time when relaxing because the changing images on the screen often cause your brain to go into a fight/flight state of high alert.
Focus on the goal
Four weeks is such a short time in your life so focus on the big picture – the reason you are sitting the exams; to get yourself ahead in life, to get into the course you want next year or whatever your goal is.
A helpful activity is to visualise yourself being successful in your exams.