How Cal Poly Students are Managing Exam Stress

The residence halls become dim as public health student, Leila Morrow, is on the last stretch of studying. Thoughts slow as she tries to recall every term for the tests lined up the next day, but she can’t sit at her desk any longer. Needing a break, Morrow steps out of her residence hall for a breath of fresh air in the late night. She heads for a walk along the well-lit campus as a way to take her mind off the piling stress. 

Walking a long campus, trips to the Recreation Center, journaling and connecting with friends, students are scrambling to find ways to manage the recurring midterms and final exams approaching. 

Academic stress may be the single most dominant factor that affects the mental well-being of college students, according to a 2022 review published in Frontiers in Psychology. For many Cal Poly students, that stress peaks around midterms.

“It’s just so much information to obtain in such little time,” Ayumi Sandez, microbiology freshman said. “Once one midterm starts, the second midterm is already coming up and you’re just stressed for the rest of the quarter.”

However, Cal Poly students are not facing this alone–therapy dogs, yoga, meditation workshops and planting activities are just some of the ways the university is offering support.

“We wanted to reach a wider range of students and support them in their wellness in different ways that are not necessarily limited to the Recreation Center,” Ella Boladian, kinesiology senior and Wellness Student Assistant, said.

Starting off exam season, on Monday, Apr. 28, students gathered in Studio 2 at the recreation center for an evening of guided yoga, meditation and journaling, led by instructor Kate Berman. 

Students are guided through yin yoga movements and journaling prompts as a way to calm the nervous system from outside distractions.  

“There are so many demands placed on college students, from their coursework, their jobs, their professors, themselves and their parents,” Berman said, describing why students might have a highly activated nervous system

According to Berman, yin yoga activates the vagus nerve, a part of the parasympathetic nervous system that helps slow heart rate and calm the body. In other words, it’s a way to shift students out of fight-or-flight mode and lower stress hormones.

Often, students leave the class transformed, Berman said. 

“At the beginning, I tend to witness a little bit of restlessness and maybe discomfort,” Berman said. “Towards the end, I see people really leaving a state of, like, kind of more calm and just slow.”

Since rebuilding the Cal Poly Wellness program for its first fully scheduled quarter this Spring, this relief is the kind of outcome the wellness events are designed to foster, Ella Boladian, Wellness student assistant said. 

“That’s all we really want, is just to promote wellness and give students events that they would enjoy,” Boladian said.

After partaking in the guided yoga, meditation and journaling event, Boladian said she noticed people walk out of the studio happy and smiling–an indication of the event’s success

Just outside, students can find more support on the Health and Wellness Lawn, where therapy dogs are brought in at least twice a month.  On schedule for midterms, dogs visited the Sequoia Lawn on Thursday from noon to 2 p.m..

During exam weeks is when the campus demands for therapy dogs are highest, according to Denise Fitzgerald, a volunteer with Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

Fitzgerald has been organizing visits to Cal Poly since 2008 and has seen firsthand the emotional relief these dogs provide – so much so that she recalled a student who, years later, recognized a therapy dog named Tucker at the park and credited him with helping her get through finals.

“There’s something about the human and dog bond,” Fitzgerald said. “Just being able to sit and pet a dog and sometimes just quietly, helps people just kind of forget about some of the stressful times that they may be going through.”

Beyond the organized support, students are finding their own ways to navigate midterms. This includes other types of physical activity and ways of coming together. 

“I like to take walks, especially night walks, or go to the Recreation Center,” public health freshman Leila Morrow said. “Other than that, I like to journal.” 

She also attends Panhellenic-organized study groups, which help her feel less alone during midterms, she said. This is something she hopes to see more of during exam weeks. 

“It’d be nice to see more community-driven study sessions. It’s kind of an intimidating thing to just get a group going in the first place, especially if it’s huge lecture halls,” Morrow said.

Jess Alvear, a political science and Spanish sophomore, balances two majors and a campus job–a combination that limits her time, adding to her stress.  

“I notice I’m either up late or squeezing in study time between classes. I think taking advantage of the short periods I have of free time during the day can kind of relieve my stress,” Alvear said. She spends this time staying connected, whether it’s calling home or spending time with friends, she said. 

“It just kind of helps me to relieve my stress a little bit if I share it with other people and we can kind of bond because I feel like it’s something everyone is going through,” Alvear said.

As midterms stretch on and students juggle jobs, the pressure continues, but so does the support. Whether it’s through a quiet yoga session, a call home or a few calming minutes with a therapy dog, students can find ways to reset.

For students like Leila Morrow, sometimes all it takes is fresh air and a walk in the calm night to reset and refocus before returning to a night of studying.