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Author: Emma Sajic

1^st March 2001

Stressed Students

Everyone feels stressed at some point in their lives. For most students, stress comes from having too much work to do and too little time in which to do it, plus money worries. Look around campus and you'll see four main types of stressed student: the Anxious type, the Perfectionist type, the Stimulus-Seeker type and the Ambitious type.

The Anxious type is likely to be found hanging around outside the Arts building smoking frantically. They take on undemanding tasks which are likely to lead to them getting bored and frustrated - for example, an arts degree with ten hours a week max. They don't like expressing their negative feelings (with good reason - they'll get no sympathy!) and are always apologising (to everyone with more than ten hours' lectures a week). When they move to a more demanding job they may find it difficult to cope (which is why they go travelling around the world after they graduate - so they don't have to get one!).

The Perfectionist type likes routine and having every little detail right. They spend a lot of time fiddling with expensive-looking mobile phones and sitting in the library, writing summaries of textbooks in really neat handwriting, in their notes. This can take them so long that they never get started on the actual coursework the notes were in aid of. They draw up rotas for everything and know their timetable backwards. This type are most likely to be found in the Science or Maths departments. They often have a greyish pallor from too much time spent indoors.

The Stimulus-Seeker type thrives on adventure. They live in the bar and enjoy the challenge of staggering back to lectures without falling over after drinking sixteen pints. They are the kind who nick traffic cones and always order the Tindaloo when they go out for a curry. Their short attention span is one of their limitations (and is probably due to the fact that they're usually hungover). Stimulus-Seekers usually choose careers where risk-taking is encouraged - that's why a lot of them are medics or engineers (they're longing to cut people up or use dangerous machines as part of their job).

The Ambitious type is aggressive and puts all their energy into their work. There are some of them on everyone's course. They always sit at the front row in lectures and are the first ones in to the library, where they take out and hog all the books that you desperately need for your last-minute essay. Usually they are the ones who get Firsts in every module and say that they didn't do any revision / wrote the essay at the last minute. This is an utter lie - in reality they've been revising six months in advance for every exam they ever took, and writing ten drafts of every coursework.

The main way to avoid stress is to take time out to relax. Yes - just forget those coursework deadlines and your mounting overdraft, and go out drinking! Next morning when you're feeling sick as a dog and swearing you'll never drink alcohol again you can console yourself with the idea that it was all for a good cause.