<p>[AFP:</a> India exam pressure leads to wave of student suicides](<a href=“http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWKoF-D0K1OcSdsnm3Dxey96kGzA]AFP:”>http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWKoF-D0K1OcSdsnm3Dxey96kGzA)</p>
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<p>This really makes me kind of grateful to be in Singapore, as stressful as it may be here.</p>
<p>But such exam related stress is not unique to India. All asian countries, why even developed countries, have this problem.</p>
<p>[Suicide</a> a Sign of China Students’ Stress, Teen’s Suicide Underscores Concerns About Stress of Exams for Students in China - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/07/ap/world/mainD8I3H4NG0.shtml]Suicide”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/07/ap/world/mainD8I3H4NG0.shtml)</p>
<p><a href=“AP”>quote</a> A teenager’s suicide after being barred from a key high school exam for not tying back her hair underscores the intense pressure on millions of Chinese who began taking annual college entrance tests Wednesday.</p>
<p>Worries are rising about academic stress. There are 2.6 million places at China’s universities, but the competition is fierce _ 9.5 million youths are taking the three-day exams that are widely viewed as crucial to career and financial success.</p>
<p>Although 16-year-old Wu Wenwen’s suicide occurred in January, during high school end-of-term tests, it is resonating during this week’s college exams.</p>
<p>According to her family and newspaper accounts, Wenwen drowned herself after she was stopped at the exam room door because her hair wasn’t tied back as her school required.</p>
<p>She returned in barrettes, but was told the exam had started and she was too late to take it. Wenwen phoned her mother in tears, and then disappeared. Her body was found that night in a nearby lake.</p>
<p>As in Japan and South Korea, schooling in China has become a nail-bitingly stressful ordeal for children and parents alike, one that experts say causes undue emotional distress.</p>
<p>“Pressure from study and exams is a top reason for psychological problems among Chinese youth,” said Jin Wuguan, director of the Youth Psychological Counseling Center at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital.</p>
<p>In China’s increasingly success-oriented cities, academic stress is seen as a rising cause of youth suicides and even murders of parents by children unhinged by overwhelming pressure to perform.</p>
<p>China doesn’t keep comprehensive statistics on student suicides, but Jin said health care professionals see the problem worsening, even among elementary students.</p>
<p>Most Chinese schools still lack counselors and teachers receive little training in spotting emotional distress, Jin said. Parents are little help, often piling on pressure while ignoring their children’s emotional development, he said.</p>
<p>“It’s a basic unwillingness or inability to recognize and deal with emotional problems,” Jin said.</p>
<p>Wang Yufeng, at Peking University’s Institute of Mental Health, estimates the rate of emotional disorders such as depression and paranoia among Chinese students under age 17 at up to 32 percent _ a total of 30 million students.</p>
<p>Others say the figure may be as high as 50 percent. A survey last year by the government said nearly 58 percent of students felt highly stressed by academic pressures.
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<p>That sucks…I can’t believe they’d give up their lives for results…sometimes parents and family need to remind teens that they’re loved even when they fail…I’m so glad my parents did that…</p>
<p>yeah, it is beacuse of immense pressure from their family and immediate society that are driving students to take their lifes. I can’t understand why some parents cause such situations that their children begin to question their existence. As parents, it is also their role to encourage and be friends with their children.</p>
<p>This is where Asian countries lag behind from the western world. Most younsters live their life as their parents want them to. If parents truly love their child, they should support their children no matter what. Understanding from your parents and their confidence in you are the biggest gifts a child can ever get. I am very lucky that I’ve got such parents.</p>
<p>Exactly jason, I second every single word of that post. I am very lucky to have understanding parents too.</p>
<p>But all of you have made your parents proud,isn’t it!</p>
<p>Yeah…but I’ve failed quite a few times in life. Having genius cousins doesn’t help either. I was forced to take a gap year because my SAT scores sucked…and the last year of HS was messed up for me too. But my parents were patient and they let me find my own way out of the hell hole. So, now, grades are important to me…but they aren’t the center of my universe 
and I know my folks support me even when they don’t have much to be proud of…it’s a good feeling.</p>
<p>My parents would kill me if I didn’t get into an Ivy League university. I know my parents love me but they sacrifice so much to get me into Andover etc. I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t get into Harvard etc. And I’m Indian. I really don’t think about not getting into Ivy League not because I’m so good, in fact far from it. Its just I’m expected to go. All my cousins have gone and I’m the only child.</p>
<p>It is too simplistic to say that such stress is only due to parental pressure.</p>
<p>All said and done, studies and exams are stressful and the feelings of failure are felt because of an increasingly competitive world. And some students can’t cope with it all, so suicidal behaviour, according to psychologists. </p>
<p>If you think this happens only in Asia, perish the thought.</p>
<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | UK | Education | When exam stress becomes too much](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4791211.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | UK | Education | When exam stress becomes too much)</p>
<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | Health | Exam stress can lead to suicide](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3758359.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | Health | Exam stress can lead to suicide)</p>
<p>Bring out your worries to the open, shore. Most of these parents-children conflics in interest are due to lack of communication. Be honest about how you feel. </p>
<p>Are you really interested in going to Ivies? Oh I better rephrase this question…haha…I mean do you want to go to a school where you’ll most likely have to spend about all your time to study because you’ll have to meet the students in the academic level? And to get better oppurtunities, you’d have to come on top of the classes. Or do you want to go to a school which is more laid back and you can also manage your time to fit in your extra curricular interests along with your academic ones?</p>
<p>This is just one question. First try and understand your interests, and then talk to your parents about it. Tell them you’d better prosper in ‘this’ type of academic and social setting than ‘that’.</p>
<p>P.S. I never mean to say that if you study in Ivies, you’ll do nothing but study and study. It’s just that the competition is just too intense and it may burn you out. Couple that to pursuing your extra curricular interests, it can be very difficult to deal with.</p>
<p>Yeah, committing suicude is not only due to parental pressure, but it is inter-related. I believe the main reason people committ suicide is because they feel utterly unappreciated and discarded or they can’t come to terms with the things they face. </p>
<p>Talking about the competetive world, it can be associated like this: The world is so competetive that the one who commits suicides thinks that s/he will not be able to make her mark, anywhere. S/he comes to a conclusion that s/he’ll feel unappreciated and every one will hate him/her because in his/her term “S/he’ll be a failure”. I don’t think any one commits suicide just because of one thing such as “exam scores turn too poor, GF/BF leaves”. To decide to take one’s life is always difficult and if anyone decides to do it, than for him/her the idea of living is hideous. Instead, s/he wants to die and be done with. To make this decisions, s/he must have had a number of reasons over the time.</p>
<p>And, we were talking ot teenagers committing suicide. Parents or I’d better say surrounding has an important role in an individual making a decision to take his/her life. Parents are the best guides for teenagers, so I believe they must make their children fell ‘appreciated’ and ‘wanted’. Comparing one’s child with others’ is a wrong thing to do. This can hurt a child pretty badly because s/he is never good for his/her parents. Slowly the child may feel as a burden to his/her family and if things get worse, to his/her society. This may deepen over time and things such as exam stress may act as ‘trigger’ for them to make that final step.</p>
<p>Hey, I think I should be a psycho-analyst…haha…guys, you are free to disagree with me. Let’s discuss this topic.</p>
<p>typo: competitive. not competetive</p>
<p>Thank god my parents moved from China. My cousins even have to take an exam to decide which MIDDLE school they go to. They’ve turned out well, so far.</p>
<p>Isn’t Singapore one of the worst places in the world for exam pressure? I mean, if you don’t get into one of the two top universities your life is basically over I heard. Japan is also horrible, along with India and to a large extent China too.</p>
<p>It’s sad, really, the whole Asian thing. Intellectualism is absolutely dead out here.</p>
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<p>Quite heavy stuff, I’s say haha</p>
<p>Well, it’s true!</p>