Reality of stress Professor Ramos Blog

Reality of stress In today’s society, stress is becoming more of a normal thing to always experience. Stress is caused by your body responding to demands. College student are a main focus when it comes to stress. The four main types of stress are Acute Stress, Episodic Acute Stress, Chronic Stress and good stress. Anyone can get stressed, but the most common age group to experience it is between 18-47 years old. Acute stress is typically the more common stress. It is caused by reactive thinking. Negative thoughts are a major influence. An example is if you have any deadlines coming up, or recent arguments. If the stress meets the DSM-5 criteria, the individual will be diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder. The DSM-5 stands for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is a book of 10 years’ worth of research done by hundreds of international experts who work in different departments of mental health. They put this together in hopes of understanding how these disorders work. Acute Stress usually is temporarily, doesn’t last for too long but it will still cause your body to release the chemical cortisol which has your body shaken up a bit. There are ways for the individual to help their body relieve the stress. This can be done by breathing exercise, cognitive reframing, progressive muscle relaxation, and mini-meditation. But Acute stress can easily turn into Episodic Acute Stress. Acute Disorder and Episodic Acute Stress Disorder mirror each other but one has ongoing suffering and damage. Episodic Acute Stress is when people who are already diagnosed with Acute Stress, start to have a change in their reactions. They become short-tempered, irritable, anxious, tense or have uneasy energy. One can also have frequent triggers of stress. People who often display these emotions are ones who live in chaos or crisis. Most of them are occupied with many responsibilities and cannot stay organized in a timely manner. Their minds are at the brink of a stress overload! Their personal relationships start to become progressively worse and work becomes a place of hell. Many of these symptoms can become a health concern as it creates a challenge for their body in many ways. Heart disease, muscle distress, intestinal issues, head aces, and high blood pressure are the main health issues but there are an additional 30 health concerns. Intensive therapy for several months can help this situation. It takes a while because these daily habits are engraved in their minds and they see nothing wrong with what they do because they are accustomed already. But most patients will not be open to change. While this is a pretty serious disorder, Chronic stress out weights Episodic Acute Stress. Chronic Stress is the most harmful type of stress. It destroys their lives, mind, and body. a lot of the physical and mental damage is irreversible. This stress can most often lead to anxiety and depression as their symptoms are alike. The individual feels like they have no control over their thoughts and emotions. Long term changes can turn into a mental illness. While the mind is working double, the body has no intensions of slowing done either. The body takes a tole as physical issues start to rise. Long term problems for the heart and blood vessel, increasing heart rate, elevated levels of blood pressure and stress hormones are deteriorating the body. chronic stress is the leading cause of sudden death, mostly influenced by heart attacks, arterial disease and a stroke. Exercise and a change in diet would be a big help when trying to get rid of chronic stress. Although these all seem bad there is actually good stress as well. Psychologist refer this Good stress as â€Å"Eustress†. We feel this when we are eager and excited. This stress keeps us feeling alive and well. Some examples for this is when the individual is going on a first date, a roller coaster or Doing things that makes one happy. But too much stress can become bad stress so one must limit their activities to make sure a lot stress isn’t triggered. As a college student one must find a balance between these 4 types of stress. A study was done by The American Psychology Association to see what age group had highest levels of stress. 18-47-year-olds reportedly were the most stressed. But this is combing millennials (ages between 18-33) and Gen Xers (ages between 34-47). On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest level of stress, millennials and Gen Xers had a high score of 5.4 compared to the Boomers (ages between 48-66) who had a score of 4.7. it is clear that college age students have the highest stress. 43% of college students suffer from either Acute Stress, Episodic Acute stress, or Chronic Stress. This does not include good stress. As a college student there are ways to help alleviate the stress. According to the American Association of Stress an article written by Dr. Ronald L. Rubenzer has a top ten test taking tips to help college student feel less stressed with their work. TOP TEN TEST-TAKING TIPS (THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO TEST) Left-brain training to become Fact-Smart: 1) Teach Positively: Students learn more when they like the teacher (William James-Harvard, 1899). 2) Teach memory mechanics. The basic rule is repetition, repetition, repetition. 3) Require students to develop their own flashcards and stack the deck with only the memorized facts. 4) Answer the core question, without being tripped up by â€Å"word traps† (irrelevant details) or generalizations (always, never, everywhere). Both-brain training to become Test-Smart: 5) Be Clerically Correct: For the young, when in doubt, check their skills out (attention, handwriting, reading skills). 6) Provide â€Å"Test Rehearsals† (if approved). All great performances start with rehearsal. Right-brain training to become Stress-Smart: 7) Test for Test-Anxiety. â€Å"Stress is sand in the machinery of thought.† All classes will have â€Å"test-anxious.† â€Å"Testanxious† or â€Å"math-anxious† underachieve on tests. As adults they avoid rewarding jobs requiring many tests or using complex math. â€Å"Computerphobics† short-circuit their own growth by just plain refusing to acquire 21st century skills. The â€Å"anxious† resist change. 8) Consume â€Å"Food for thought† just before the test session. Eat fruit, followed by a drink of water. 9) Relax: See your mental health professional on test-anxiety reduction tips. Use humor to relax. See a movie the night before the â€Å"big event.† 10) Learn from those who do Best on-tests. Test-Prep can boost test scores by 10%! (Scruggs Mastropieri, Purdue University, 1992). One won’t be completely alleviated from stress with these tips but it can help. The signs of Acute Stress, Episodic Acute stress, and Chronic stress should not be avoided. Those that are affected should seek help before the mind and body are too damaged and cannot be repaired. Work cited spacioustherapy.com By: Shawna Freshwater January 17, 2018 verywellmind.com By: Elizabeth Scott April 3, 2018 apa.org By: Lyle H. Miller, PhD, Alma Dell Smith, PhD. stress.org By Dr. Ronald L Rubenzer 2008 heartmdinstitute.com By: Stephen T. Sinatra

How Much Do AP Tests Cost

How Much Do AP Tests Cost SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Curious about how much it costs to take an AP Test? Learn here how much your AP exams are going to cost you in 2015-16. We’ll also cover how to get financial aid if you need it. So read on for maximum AP test cost saving! AP Exam Cost for 2015-16 The fee for each AP Exam in 2015-16 is $92. This is a slight increase from the $91 fee in 2014-15. In general, the cost for AP exams tends to rise by a dollar or two each year. If you’re curious about the price for future years, you can expect the fee to rise slightly – maybe up to $93 or $94 in the next year or two. Don’t worry about a massive price jump happening anytime soon. Also, international students take note: the fee for exams at schools outside of the United States, U.S. territories and commonwealths, and Canada is $122 per exam. Since College Board is based in the U.S., it costs extra money to handle international testing. In short, AP exams definitely cost quite a bit! But there is finacial aid available. Read on to learn about College Board's fee reduction program. Can I Get Financial Aid for AP Exams? College Board provides a $30 fee reduction for each exam taken by students with demonstrated financial need. That $30 reduction brings down the total cost to $53 per exam ($30 + a $9 rebate from College Board). How the financial need for the fee reduction is determined depends on your state, and whether your district participates in a program called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). We’ll get into the nitty-gritty details below. Basically, the darker blue your state is, the bigger chance there is your district participates in CEP. But as we'll discuss below, the easiest way to find out is to talk to your guidance counselor. Map courtesy of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The CEP is a program for schools and districts with high percentages of low-income children to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. If a district already uses CEP, College Board simply allows students who are eligible for CEP to also qualify for AP fee reduction. If your district does not participate in CEP, then College Board uses the eligibility standards for the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program. We’ll go over exactly what those eligibility requirements look like below. If Your School Participates in CEP The guidelines for qualifying for the AP fee reduction in CEP districts are as follows: Either your family’s income is at or below 185 percent of the poverty level issued annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or You qualify as an "identified student" because you are: in foster care or Head Start, or homeless or migrant, or living in households that receive SNAP/Food Stamps, TANF cash assistance, or the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations benefits If Your School Doesn’t Participate in CEP For schools and districts that do not participate in CEP, enrollment in or eligibility to participate in the federal Free or Reduced Lunch program can be used to qualify for AP Fee reduction. The qualifiers for free and reduced lunch are pretty much the same as CEP: Your family’s income is at or below 185 percent of the poverty level issued annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or You are directly certified without application for free school meals because you are: in foster care or Head Start, or homeless or migrant, or living in households that receive SNAP/Food Stamps, TANF cash assistance, or the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations benefits You can read more about College Board's fee reduction policies to learn more. But what if you don’t meet those criteria? Or you do meet those criteria, but $53 per exam is still too expensive? Some states have additional funding that may be available for AP exams. This could lower that $53 price even more. Find those guidelines here. In addition, your school or district might have its own fee reduction guidelines or programs. So how do you find out exactly how much financial aid you can get for AP? Actionable There are quite a few channels to getting funding for your AP tests, but those channels vary by where you live. You could get money from College Board, from your state, or even from your school. To find out exactly how much financial aid you qualify for, go to your guidance counseling office and ask about AP Exam fees at your school. The guidance counselors can help determine if you qualify for College Board’s fee reduction, and furthermore, they’ll tell you about any additional funding programs your school or state might have. The guidance counseling office should have experience helping students get funding for AP exams, especially if your school has a pretty wide AP course selection. Is $92 Per Exam Worth It? If you’re anything like I was in high school, you may be getting a case of sticker shock right now. $92 per exam is a lot of money! Even if you qualify for College Board’s fee reduction, you could still be paying $53 per exam. So is the price worth it? Well, that depends on if you pass the exam and how your score translates to college credit and/or admissions competitiveness. If you pass an exam that is eligible for college credit at the school you end up attending, the cost can definitely be worth it – that $92 could pay for a course that runs in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Some students are even able to enter college as sophomores and save a whole year of tuition based on their AP credit. In for a penny, out for a pound, as the old saying goes. The $92 fee can also be worth it if you get a good score that helps you get into a selective college, even if that school doesn’t take AP credit. For example, I took nine AP classes over the course of high school. While many of them didn’t end up getting me course credit at Stanford, those classes – and the high scores I got on AP tests – certainly strengthened my application. For my family, the money spent on AP exams ended up being worthwhile, especially since I received a generous financial aid package from Stanford. This means you have to make a judgment call for each AP class and test – does the class add a meaningful challenge to your schedule, or are you just piling on AP classes? You're more likely to pass each AP exam you take if your schedule isn't jammed with them. Think carefully about this. As we’ve said before, don’t feel pressure to load up on AP classes just to have them. Only take the classes you are confident you can do well in and/or have strong personal interest for. Finally, the fee is absolutely not worth it if you fail the exam, because you won’t get college credit and that $92 is essentially wasted. Furthermore, a score of 1 or 2 does not look impressive to colleges, even if you get good grades in the AP class (in fact, that may just signal to the colleges the AP classes at your school are too easy). Again, make sure not to overload on AP classes! What’s Next? Learn even more about AP classes: how colleges use AP credit, the hardest and easiest AP classes, and whether the AP program is doing a good job. Also studying for the SAT/ACT? Learn how to develop a target score for the SAT/ACT based on your dream schools. College applications on the brain? Learn everything you need to know about the college essay and watch out for deadlines you can't miss. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: