Assessment app for students to deal with exam stress

Exam stress is in the air and technology may have found a solution to it.

Worried about the exams and anxious about the results, several students fall prey to immense pressure and even resort to taking extreme steps.

In an attempt to address this issue, a preventive mental health solution company nSmiles has developed an app which will help students to analyse their stress level and address it before it gets out of hand.

The increasing teenage suicidal tendencies due to exams and results led nSmiles to come up with the app based assessment test name "Happy Being".

An engineering student, Y S Abhinav was unable to cope up with Mathematics. He feared that the subject would 'drown him' and that he could never clear it. With a friend's help, he got in touch with a few counsellors and took an online assessment test to identify his fears. The whole exercise helped him clear the exam.

"Mathematics was my biggest fear, I just could not figure out if the problem was my inability to understand it or my fear of failing. I wanted to know where I was stuck and thankfully, through the app and counselling through the company, I was able to overcome my phobia," Abhinav said.

Similarly, Chaithanya, a 16-year-old boy had difficulties with the language paper of Sanskrit. Though the subject is usually considered to be easy and high scoring, Chaithanya had problems in writing Sanskrit as he had to write it in the Devanagari script.

His father, Shiva Ramakrishna said that he observed his son biting nails while studying and frequented the toilet as soon as he sat to study. "Initially I thought he had some health issues like diabetes and even took him to the doctor for a check-up. But, he was healthy and the problem was found to be of exam stress. Then I took him to counsellors. He took the 'Happy Being' test which helped him a lot. After visiting the counselling sessions my son feels confident,"Shiva Ramakrishna added.

"There is lack of awareness among people about stress and peer pressure faced by students, especially during the exams," said Teju Nageshwari B, Founder and CEO of nSmiles.

"One out of every 10 persons suffers from mental health issues. But an access to a psychiatrist or a psychologist is possible for only one in every 1 lakh people, which is very less in India. The mental health issue is not related to gene problems among Indians, but it is due to adjustment issues. Every day, people have to deal with so much of competition and pressure which creates immense stress. Preventive mental health care is better than waiting till someone surrenders to these issues," she added.