On Nov, 12, McMaster’s SRA reviewed and refined a statement addressing “violence in the Middle East” to be put forward by the MSU. The statement was released on MSU Instagram and in full on the MSU website, and addresses student populations directly affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict and organizations the MSU has pledged to make donations
An all-nighter or skipping a meal or a study break here and there to cram in some extra work may seem like a good idea during a busy exam season. However, these habits can have short and long-term consequences for student health, including brain fog, burnout, a weakened immune system and poorer mental health.
Located in downtown Hamilton, Hawk & Sparrow is a vintage, secondhand boutique that has been making varied and unique clothing items available to the community for more than a decade. They’ve gone through a few iterations over the years, but throughout them all founder Sarah Moyal is committed to being accessible and welcoming to all.
The men’s basketball team recorded a win in their home opener to kick of their Ontario University Athletics season. The Marauders won 78-80 against the University of Toronto, with senior players Daniel Graham and Moody Qasim scoring 16 points each. Despite a difficult preseason with losses against several interleague teams, McMaster University is off to a great start to begin their year.
Although we all strive to do well on our midterms this should not occur at the expense of our physical and mental well-being
With exam season fast approaching, many students are slowly starting to forget about their own well-being. All-nighters, avoiding breaks and skipping meals will be the daily norm as libraries are filled to the brim with students focused on achieving one goal - getting a good grade.
Under the pressure of succeeding in rigorous university classes, students are forced to prioritize their GPAs above everything – but at what cost?
Under no circumstances is it okay to place your academics above your mental well-being, especially during high-stress periods like exam season. In fact, during times like these, it’s important to prioritize yourself to avoid psychological distress.
Under no circumstances is it okay to place your academics above your mental well-being, especially during high-stress periods like exam season. In fact, during times like these, it’s important to prioritize yourself to avoid psychological distress.
You should not be pushing through deteriorating mental health for the sake of an exam. By doing so, students are making themselves susceptible to psychological distress, academic burnout, and isolation from the damaged relationships. Indulging in these typical exam activities infrequently may be okay for the time being. However, when consistently making these activities common practice many long-term adverse health implications accompany that.
For example, you may have skipped lunch today because you have an exam at 4 p.m. You may think that using this extra time to study might help you do better on your exam than if you were to grab lunch.
In the short term, you are now starving during your exam which may distract you and make it difficult to concentrate on the exam. However, if you continue to skip meals you are putting yourself at risk for health issues such as mood swings and brain fog. Over time, more concerning consequences can arise too, like fainting and muscle loss, contributing to more illnesses that can cause you a trip to the emergency room.
Experiencing these extreme health implications will only worsen over time if students continue to study all night and isolate themselves from friends and family.
Even though exam season is riddled with anxiety and stress, it is important to understand that the habits we develop during these academically critical periods will have long-term negative impacts on our health. When our health is impacted, our performance on exams is also negatively impacted.
So, what really are the benefits of neglecting our wellbeing?
Although skipping study breaks may help you perform well on your first exam, it’s very likely that continuing these habits will prevent you from performing well on future exams. Additionally, you may begin to experience insomnia, psychological distress, and increased stress levels. Overall, these short-term practices not only have negative health implications in the long term, but they also impact your performance on exams as December progresses.
As hard as it may be, students should not sacrifice their well-being temporarily for exams as the consequences follow us well after. We must recognize that regardless of the intentions for indulging in these practices, there are very minimal benefits to experience during exam season.
We must recognize that regardless of the intentions for indulging in these practices, there are very minimal benefits to experience during exam season.
In fact, prioritizing our well-being can demonstrate academic benefits that will allow us to excel during exams. For example, eating nourishing meals throughout this stressful period can increase mental alertness and stabilize your energy levels allowing you to perform better on exams.
With exams quickly approaching, it's important to remember that sacrificing your well-being to upkeep an ideal GPA can lead to unhealthy habits appearing in the long-term concerns. Taking care of your health, such as eating well and taking breaks.
Here are some ways you can balance fasting with the stress of final exams
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and for Muslims across the world, this is one of the most important times of the year. During this month, the Muslim community engages in praying, fasting and becoming closer to their faith in general.
This year, similar to last year, Ramadan happens to fall in the month of April. For university students, April is the exam season. So, for the large Muslim community at McMaster University, finding peace while fasting and juggling the stress of exams can become very difficult. Here are some ways to observe an enjoyable and fulfilling Ramadan while succeeding in final exams.
The first is to remember you are not alone. At McMaster, there are several clubs targeted for the Muslim community. For example, the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) dedicates their time to bringing their community closer together and closer to their faith. Joining clubs like these or attending events, like Iftar socials, will help you befriend individuals who are of similar cultures to you and uphold the same morals and beliefs as you. Knowing there are people experiencing similar challenges to you can be motivating.
Organizations like the MSA also frequently have Iftar socials during Ramadan. Iftar is the meal that is eaten upon breaking one’s fast. This can be good way to take a break from studying for an exam and mingle amongst students.
Organizations like the MSA also frequently have Iftar socials during Ramadan. Iftar is the meal that is eaten upon breaking one’s fast. This can be good way to take a break from studying for an exam and mingle amongst students.
You should also be wary of what you eat. I find I unintentionally skip meals during the exam season as my mind tries to juggle and keep track of every task I need to get done. Eating healthy foods in moderate amounts during Ramadan is important as whatever meal you have will be your fuel for the day.
Many students find it difficult to get into a productive routine as the piles of work they have become overwhelming. For those observing Ramadan, you can overcome this by taking advantage of the meal timings already set for you.
After having suhoor, or the pre-dawn meal which ends at dawn, you can begin studying for the day. You will feel less tired, as you have already been awake for some time and energized from the meal. As the day progresses, center your breaks closer to prayer times to not only avoid a burnout but also to take time to truly reflect and practice what Ramadan is all about, peace and tranquility.
By the time Iftar rolls around, as the sun sets, you will have completed plenty of revision. Feeling satisfied with your productivity for the day, it is now time to break your fast and kick back for the rest of the night. Do not feel guilty for taking the rest of the night to yourself and even going to sleep early.
It can get difficult trying to attend equally to school, your faith and yourself. The most important advice is to not let it overwhelm you. Taking everything step by step at a slow and steady pace will help keep you calm and give your best efforts to whatever task you are trying to complete. This way, the peace that comes with Ramadan is not suppressed by your stress over school.
The mental illness label can have tremendous impacts and we should approach it with more care
By: Frank Chen, Contributor
CW: mentions of mental illness
Veterans of university know: this late-November to mid-December stretch is not a good time of the year. As midterms wrap up and exam season ramps into full gear, this is the point where students become overwhelmed, burnt out and exhausted. Yet, we have some of the most important examinations ahead. Especially in this “unprecedented” year, the burden on students is massive, and the McMaster University community has been vocal about it.
At the forefront of this is a discussion regarding student mental health. Over the past year, the ideas of mental health and mental illness have been thrown around a lot by students. Students are increasingly expressing loneliness, reporting frustration with coursework and burning out. As a result of those feelings, I’ve seen more and more people labelling themselves as depressed or anxious. But “mental illness” is a term with a lot more weight than many people realize.
When the “mental illness” tag is put on you, it’s often seen as a fixed state — a never-ending onslaught of “bad” mental health. It becomes easy to stop appreciating the good parts of your life when you fixate on the idea that you are “mentally unfit.” Regardless of illness or not, there can be real harm done just by the label itself.
As an example, in my first year of university (which was in person), I bought into the idea that my stresses and insecurities were a form of generalized anxiety disorder. Due to this, I put boundaries on how I could or could not act based on what I thought of my own mental state. This took away so many possibilities.
Instead, I now realize how my stresses in my first year could be reframed as a normal response to a change of environment and an adaptation to university life. But regardless, my belief of having anxiety limited me and it can be incredibly easy to misjudge these negative emotions to mental illness.
Both my personal experience and some of the nuances in how students talk about mental illness illustrate an important idea: that our view of mental illness can be incredibly individualized. In stressful situations that evoke emotional responses and actions, we often miscategorize our failings to ourselves rather than a product of our environment.
For example, students often blame themselves for their grades, for not being prepared enough or for not being that star student who can simultaneously juggle many commitments. However, what we fail to consider are the social contexts that we are in that often make it difficult to achieve these standards, such as home conditions, family duties or socioeconomic status.
In stressful situations that evoke emotional responses and actions, we often miscategorize our failings to ourselves rather than a product of our environment.
Similarly, students also often talk about mental health as a dichotomous issue, as either having good or bad mental health, which inherently puts pressure on themselves to “fix” their mental states. But realistically, everyone has good and bad days, largely influenced by the events and activities taking place that day. Mental health is less a fixed state based on your own failures, but rather something that is constantly fluctuating largely influenced by your surroundings.
Our individualized view of mental illness poses danger for those caught up in it. Mental health when approached from the view that it’s the fault of the individual can often lead to a vicious cycle where mental illness can lead to self-doubt and self-hate, furthering negative self-perceptions. The label of illness can be hard to escape from, but social context is key when approaching the way you feel. Understanding that the vast majority of signs and symptoms of what you may think is illness can actually come as normal responses to stressful contexts.
It can be hard to step back and convince yourself that social contexts can play the role it does. Historically, mental health as a discipline has been rooted in individualism, harkening back to the days when disabled people, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and others who were deemed socially undesirable were blamed for their “mental illness.”
Mental illness was used as a tool to control those who didn’t conform to social standards set at the time, their purpose was originally to condemn the individual. In part, it’s this long-standing history of individualized mental illness that contributes to why so many people still think of it this way today.
With the impending exam season, we need to be more aware of the implications of a term like “mental illness.” As we move into a stressful time for students and educators alike, I hope that we can all consider whether those negative thoughts and emotions are truly arising from mental illness or something else — because it can be very easy to misattribute feelings as disease, when there can be bigger and broader social contexts in play.
An extended break sounds great, but it has consequences for students
On Nov. 19, McMaster University announced that our winter semester classes will begin on Jan. 11, 2021, as opposed to Jan. 4, when they were initially supposed to begin. This change was recommended by the virtual learning task force, which consists of 31 faculty, students and staff members.
They stated that the reason for this is to support students’ wellness and mental health and providing faculty and instructors with extra time in preparing for the winter term. Mac also mentions that with this extra week, students who went home will now have an extra week to self-isolate to limit COVID-19 cases.
While I am thankful for an extra week in many aspects, I think it’s important to consider the consequences of this decision.
For example, not all students will be able to enjoy this extended break. Health sciences students, with the exception of the Bachelor of Health Sciences program, are exempt from this break. This means that nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, medical students and more are unable to partake in the break, even if they really need it. In addition, graduate students who have planned their thesis defence for the week of Jan. 4 will not have the option to have this break.
Not only does this break already exclude a large group of students, but it may have consequences on our exam period. It’s important to note that the McMaster Daily News article states that classes will be extended into the exam period, that no classes will overlap with exams and that the semester will end as originally planned.
What this means is unclear, but we may no longer have a short break between classes and before exams. An extra week of winter break may also mean that our exam schedule is condensed, which can result in more back-to-back exams.
For me, these potential consequences of an extended winter break seem like a net negative. An extra week off is always good to have, but I’d rather have a break right before exams when I’m a lot more stressed and have my exams spread over a longer period of time.
What this means is unclear, but we may no longer have a short break between classes and before exams. An extra week of winter break may also mean that our exam schedule is condensed, which can result in more back-to-back exams.
Furthermore, if this is the response to added stress from a pandemic, their solution is weak. Other universities, such as the University of Toronto, made a much clearer statement about the reasoning behind the break and also stated that they are continuing to redesign its mental health services.
They also mention that employees who are returning on Jan. 4 will get three extra paid days off which can be used now until Aug. 31, 2021. U of T acknowledged the consequences of the pandemic by noting that students have been feeling a huge amount of stress for several months and that many U of T community members have dealt with unique challenges, such as at-home childcare.
Obviously, U of T has its own set of issues that have yet to be addressed, but it is comforting to know that they have other action items that they are working on to improve the quality of life for students.
Most of all, this announcement had me frustrated. I’m worried that because students seem happy about this break — which we’re allowed to be happy about — Mac may think that these measures are good enough to support students during a pandemic. However, a break is not enough for me and it likely isn’t enough for many other students.
The way I see it is that Mac is focusing on strategies to cope with stress when they could be focusing on how to give us a less stressful workload. After all, we wouldn’t need breaks to deal with our increased levels of stress if we had less stress in the first place.