20% of parents believe their children too nervous to eat, says survey.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A poll of more than 1,000 youngsters who took Key Stage Two SATs last year found eight had smoked cigarettes before their exams, while 37 ate chocolate and 30 drank high-sugar energy drinks, reported The Telegraph on Monday.
The survey also revealed some 55 per cent of youngsters feared getting bad results would affect their future lives.
Three in five children, or 60 percent, said they had been told by teachers that SATs were important for the school league tables, while 68 percent admitted feeling pressured at exam time, according to the research by Kellogg’s.
A second poll of more than 1,000 parents found 20 percent of parents believed their child was too nervous to eat before SATs exams, while one in eight said their youngster had refused food.
Per The Telegraph, 18 percent of parents said their child’s behavior got worse during SATs week, and 74 percent felt their children were under more exam pressure than themselves when they were a similar age.
Twenty percent of children reported not being able to concentrate due to being nervous, 12 percent claimed they were unable to eat because of nerves and felt hungry due to skipping a meal, according to Opinion Matters.
About 22 percent of children reported losing sleep during their SATs, but the figure rose to 59 percent among children who admitted to skipping breakfast.
“It’s troubling that children are expressing so many worries about their exams,” remarked child psychologist Dr. Claire Halsey to The Telegraph. “It’s natural to experience some pressure to perform before any test, even at age 10 and 11, but these results show that SATs have become more than a little nerve-wracking,” she asserted.