4 A's of Stress Management

Last night I wrote about test anxiety. But the reality is that you all have a lot more stress in your lives than just exams. You have stress of the holidays. Stress of a change in routine coming with winter break. You may be feeling stressed about upcoming class changes for 2nd semester. Plus, just being a teenager today is very stressful!

The Mayo Clinic promotes a stress management strategy known as the 4 A's: avoid, alter, accept, and adapt.  The goal is that in every stressful situation we can look at it from the mindset of how we can apply at least one of these principles.

Avoid: Believe it or not, a lot of stress can simply be avoided. Plan ahead, learn to say no, and ditch parts of your to-do list (low priority items).

Alter: Take inventory of whatever stressful situation you find yourself in, then consider ways you change or modify it for the better.

Accept: Sometimes we have no other option than to accept things the way they are. When this is the case, it is important to talk to someone, to forgive, to practice positive self-talk, and to learn from our mistakes.

Adapt: There are times when we need to adjust or revise the standards and expectations we set upon ourselves, which many times are unreasonable. What can help to change one’s perspective is to ask yourself, “Will this matter in a year or in five years?”

Stress is a part of life. It doesn't need to control your whole life though! Try to think about ways that you can apply the 4 A's to get an A+ in Stress Management.

Test Anxiety

How are you feeling about the upcoming exams? Are you feeling anxious? Test Anxiety can be common for students - especially with bigger tests like exams since they have such a significant influence on your semester grades or other tests like End of Course state assessments since they impact graduation or ACT/ SAT since they impact college acceptance. The best strategy to prevent test anxiety is being prepared. It is much more likely that you will be anxious and struggle with feeling overwhelmed if you have not adequately studied and prepared for the test. Unfortunately, for some students, you can be well-prepared, but still struggle with anxiety.

There are a wide range of strategies you can use to help deal with anxiety:

- Research has indicated that spending several minutes before a test to write about your feelings will help decrease test anxiety and improve test scores. The University of Chicago researchers “believe worrying competes for computing power in the brain’s ‘working,’ or short-term memory.”  So if you get those worries out of your brain and out onto paper then your brain will have the space to remember your actual class content.

- Practice putting yourself in testing situations when studying. The more you get used to the experience and feelings of testing the less anxious you will feel when in the actual test.

- Just before the test, avoid talking about the test material with your friends. Chances are fixating on the test material and talking about it with your friends right before the test will only make you more anxious.

- Approach the test with a positive attitude. Don’t go into the test expecting the worst to happen. You can remind yourself that you have studied and know the material.

- Avoid distractions so that you can focus on the test and not on what other students are doing. Do not compare yourself with others and how they are doing on the test or how quicklly they might be finishing.

- Take a deep breath, relax, and do the best you can.  Truly, that is all you can ask of yourself!

For exams as well as future testing purposes (like ACT/ SAT), I should also mention that smart testing strategies like getting a good night of sleep, eating breakfast, having all of your required materials (pen, pencil, calculator, scratch paper, etc), getting regular exercise, and giving yourself plenty of time to get to your test on time will also benefit you as a whole and in testing situations.

Don't forget, tomorrow all of the juniors enrolled in Government will be taking the End of Course test. Good luck on that test! And, in general, good luck with all of your test prep so that test anxiety won't get the best of you.

Thank you WEF

The Worthington Education Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing support to projects in the Worthington school district that will benefit students. We wrote a grant application that was awarded to us last night during the Board of Education meeting.

The WEF has generously funded our grant application to start creating a Stress Management And Resiliency Training - "SMART" Lab. This new space in the counseling center will be a place where students can work to build the skills to help manage their feelings and emotions. Having new opportunities to practice regulating emotions is an opportunity we are really excited about having at Kilbourne.

Our goal is to start getting the SMART Lab set up early in 2026 so that all students can have the chance to start using it during the 2nd semester. More information about this new space will be forthcoming as we get it launched.

Senior Application Deadline Reminder

Seniors, I know many of you are still working on college applications.  I wanted to remind you to please, watch your deadlines!  

If you are looking at an early January deadline, you need to make sure that you have completed your transcript release form and invited me through Common App to submit your transcript. This should be done no later than this Friday, December 13th, in order to make sure I can get it taken care of before break.  Like you and your teachers, I will not be here during winter break to get a transcript for you, so you must plan ahead.  

Remember, you can have me upload your transcript to Common App without you being ready to submit your application so please, go ahead and invite me on Common App now!  And don't forget that you must also go to the Counselor Website to request your transcript in order to authorize it's release to the colleges.  It's a quick process, so just go ahead and knock that piece out now.

If you have any questions, please stop and see me!

Pre-ACT Results

Your Pre-ACT scores are back!  Your scores are available for pick up in the Counseling Center.  You can pick up your score sheets during your lunch periods or before or after school from any of the secretaries at the front of the counseling center. 

One nice feature of the PreACT is that you will get your test booklet and the score summary written report.  You can use this information to help you determine what you did well on and what you want to improve on in the future.

Don't forget, these are just practice tests so they are giving you an indication of where you might expect to score on the actual ACT and you can use your results to help guide you in preparing to achieve college readiness.

I hope your scores were what you were expecting (or perhaps even better).  If you have any questions don't hesitate to stop by and see me.

**Just a reminder, this post is also being shared on the NEW WKHS Counselor blog. This blog site will no longer be active beyond 2025 so you can transition to receive all blog posts emailed directly to you by subscribing to the new blog site.**

College Admissions Decisions

College admissions decisions are already starting to come in for some students. Every senior looks forward to receiving their college acceptance letters. It is an exciting time and reassures that there is more ahead. Depending upon the schools where you are applying, it is possible that you will hear back quickly or you may be waiting until sometime in March to find out if you have been accepted. I do ask that as you begin receiving your acceptance or, sadly, even rejection letters, to please keep me informed about the decisions. For the vast majority of the colleges, the only way I know about your admissions decision is if you share the information with me.

Remember, the only way to receive an acceptance letter is to actually APPLY to the college! (Just a friendly little reminder for those of you who are still struggling to get your applications finished.)

Exam Schedule

I wanted to give all students and parents a summary of the semester exam schedule with some additional frequently asked questions...

Day One - Wednesday, December 17th:

8:40 - 10:35: 1st period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 4th period exam

12:40 - 1:20: Lunch

1:25 - 3:20: 7th period exam

Day Two - Thursday, December 18th:

8:40 - 10:35: 2nd period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 5th period exam

12:40 - 1:20: Lunch

1:25 - 3:20: 8th period exam

Day Three - Friday, December 19th:

8:40 - 10:35: 3rd period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 6th period exam

12:40 - 120: NO Lunch Provided! 

1:25 - 3:20: Make-Up Exams

A couple of questions that tend to come up at exam time...

Yes, you are REQUIRED and EXPECTED to be in all of your classes during an exam. (Even if you don't have an actual exam, the teachers are going to be working with you on projects, papers, or other learning related to their course.)

No, you do NOT need to be in school during your scheduled lunch period or during your Options or Prep periods. (Which means, for example, that if you have 3rd period prep and 6th period lunch that you do not have to come to school at all on the 19th.)

Yes, there will be two bus runs on Friday - so you can leave after your 6th period exam, but if you need to stay for a make-up exam period then there will be another bus run to take you home then too.

Hope that helps clarify and I hope your studying efforts are going well.