5 Most Common Problems Students’ Face While in School

Problems Students’ Face While in School

The University, as an institution of learning, has created a platform for growth, empowerment, and opportunities. In spite of all these benefits, the whole process of the university experience has taken its toll on students. In very extreme cases, the death of student’s has been recorded. While there may be generalized problems for students, every student’s situation is unique. However, almost every student goes through the same issues at one time or the other. The key to staying afloat is experience, knowledge, and guidance.

In this article, we will be dealing with five prevalent problems students face while in school and how to resolve them:

Time Management

High schools and secondary schools most of the time do not teach Time Management as a skill. Coupled with this factor is the fact that the curricula in Universities are different; way more advanced, the teaching style is different and all the fun activities allowed in this setting differ greatly from the average high school. As a student, it sometimes feels like being lost in a carnival made up of friendships, music, and noise. More often than not, there is the tendency to get lost in the fanfare, at the detriment of academics.

If you can achieve time management as a student, you will be able to learn and perform other extracurricular activities.

To resolve the problem of time management, the first thing to do as a student is to plan your day. Although it may sometimes feel like a waste of time, you will gain substantial time savings when you take a few minutes to plan out your day. Below are some of the many reasons why you may want to learn how to plan your everyday life and get organized in your studies:

• It helps prioritize. Good timetabling enables you to take care of critical and urgent tasks first. It helps with being realistic; we often don’t realize how long a job takes till we actually sit down to plan.
• Timetabling shows you how long you spend on everyday tasks such as essay writing and problem-solving.
• It helps lessen procrastination. With a written list of tasks, you are more likely to sit down and get it done.
• It helps increase productivity. You should know precisely what you will study before you sit down at your desk.
• It helps give you more freedom. When you plan, you know that you’ll be finished at a particular time, and have spare time for other activities. Students who don’t plan well often find themselves working all evening without realizing it.
• It helps reduce guilt. If you know that you’ve achieved your goals for the day, then you can spend your free time without your studies on your mind. It helps you track your progress, stick to your timetable, and help keep you on course to get everything done.
• It helps you plan for the long-term – good organization removes the uncertainty from your study and enables you to focus on getting the best results possible.

Proper planning is the key to getting the most out of all of your activities. This discipline also helps create a right study-life balance and will benefit you in many areas of your life for years to come. With better organization, you will be on top of things from day one and won’t have to cram come exam time. It may look complicated, but this is one secret to succeeding as a student.

Student loan Debt

Majority of young people have the desire to attend higher institutions, but with the rising cost of living, it has become a complicated endeavor. The way out for many students is to obtain student loans, which in turn leaves them stranded in debt. This one factor has led to a lot of young people being depressed and sad. Before you throw in the towel, know that you can smartly manage your debts, pay them off faster and cheaper, and live a debt-free life.

Here are some ways to deal with student loan debt:

• Take advantage of your grace period. Every loan has a grace period and depending on your loan type, your lender may grant you a grace period after you graduate (or stop attending the college). This is when you don’t need to make any payments toward your loan. Avoid the tempting option of simply ignoring your debt during this period. If you still have the luxury of a grace period, now is the time to understand your loans fully, make a game plan, and, if possible, start making the payments you’d eventually be making anyway.
• Understand your loans. Even if your grace period is long gone, the first step in dealing with your student loans is to understand what you’re dealing with. It’s easy to turn your brain off, make your minimum payment (if you can even afford it), and not give it another thought. But to make an impact, you need to know how your loan works. Here’s how to understand your student loan debt: Make a list of your debt, mainly if you have obtained loans from several people or platforms. Familiarize yourself with the details of each loan and see the ones you can pay off at short notice.
• Take up freelance jobs if you can. With your pay, you can set some aside to pay off your debts. Try as much as possible not to take up more loans, so that it doesn’t get overwhelming.

Spreading yourself too thin

The thing about being young, you have the energy and enthusiasm to be a part of several activities. On campus, there are lots and lots of them. It can be very tempting to be part of everything that you love. Once you get involved, there is the tendency of having a busy schedule every day. That’s okay! What’s not okay is ignoring your mental health because of it. It’s essential to employ wisdom in such matters.

Here are some ways to deal with spreading yourself too thin:

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If your physical and mental health are not in sync, then how are you going to accomplish everything that you want to? You have to keep yourself happy and healthy in order to thrive on the road to success.
• Learn to say No, irrespective of who is asking you to be a part of a project or plan.
• Don’t push yourself farther than you can go or put too much on your plate at once. You know what you can handle. Make sure you’re sticking to that.

Depression

Depression is a widespread problem and mental health experts believe that it’s on the rise. At any given time, thousands upon thousands of university students feel sad, anxious, lonely, isolated, or overwhelmed and they have trouble functioning in their day-to-day lives. Those types of intense feelings, especially when they persist for a long time, can have serious consequences. Being depressed in college can sometimes lead to getting lower grades, missing out on significant social opportunities, experiencing physical health problems, or engaging in risky behavior such as unsafe sex, drug abuse, or binge drinking. For a clinically depressed (and untreated) college student, suicide is another potential outcome. So if you’re having a hard time dealing with depression in college, then it’s essential to seek help right away. You don’t have to face the challenge by yourself. You might feel embarrassed or afraid of how others will perceive you if you seek help. That’s normal. But it’s vital to understand that doctors and counselors are dedicated to maintaining your privacy.

Some of the most common signs of being depressed include:

• Persistently feeling sad, empty, anxious, or unhappy.
• Feeling pessimistic or hopeless Experiencing changes to your weight and appetite.
• Having trouble sleeping or oversleeping, losing interest in hobbies or other activities that you usually enjoy.
• Frequently feeling annoyed, frustrated, or restless_ even over small issues. Feeling guilty or worthless.
• Doing everything at a slower pace.
• Having trouble making decisions.
• Becoming easily distracted.
• Being more prone to outbursts of anger.
• Feeling excessively tired or weak.
• Being obsessed with your past failures.
• Having difficulty remembering things.
• Experiencing pain, headaches, or other physical problems that you can’t explain.
• Crying without any apparent reason.
• Frequently thinking about death, dying or harming yourself.

Generally speaking, your symptoms must last more than just a few days and interfere with at least some of your regular activities to be considered depression.

To deal with depression as a student, it is essential to seek help through a friend or a counselor. A counselor can offer you ways to cope as well as prescribe any treatments that he or she sees fit. People who suffer from depression cannot just “pull themselves together” and get better–they need treatment. The good news is depression is among the most treatable of mental disorders. Treatment usually involves cognitive behavior therapy, antidepressant medication, or a combination of the two.

Regardless of your specific symptoms, it is crucial that you seek help and start learning how to deal with your depression as soon as possible. Depression can take over a student’s life unexpectedly. It can happen to anyone. So it’s essential to remember that being depressed is nothing to be embarrassed about.

Relationships

Whether family, friends, or intimate relations with a partner – relationships can be a great source of love, pleasure, support, and excitement. But sometimes, relationships can also be a source of grief and anguish if they go wrong. As a young person/student, relationship issues are even more impacting on health and wellbeing because you are in a period of personal change- a time when you feel less sure of yourself and unsure of how others will react to you. Peer pressure can also become a problem at this stage.

How to deal with relationships as a student:

• To be great at relationships at this age, you have to make efforts to understand who you are and what you want. You also have to understand what works for you and what doesn’t, because when you do, you will be able to create boundaries and limits that will help define the kind of people you let into your life.
• There is a general notion that the male in the relationship is the provider. That doesn’t apply to you as a student because you do not have a source of income and you have bigger things to deal with. It is okay to have intimate relationships while in school, but if it is parasitic and is making you lose money, time, peace and concentration on your studies, then you need to cut your losses and move on.
• Understand that your family will always be there for you. When you have differences, find creative methods of resolving it. If your family is dysfunctional, don’t let it get to you so much. Take a break, choose your peace of mind above all.
• Visit a counselor and seek help.

The problem students’ face defines who they become in the future. The way they handle it at this point will prepare them to take on risks and become self-motivated people.