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Secondary education

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So much stress over results. Is this normal?

27 replies

Daboomboom · 21/08/2025 08:08

I didnt want to derail the other thread (good luck to everyone's young people!) but there are a lot of very over anxious parents and children on there. People being sick, not eaten since yesterday morning, crying etc.

Is this common? I understand some nervousness and that some people will get very stressed but it seems very OTT. Everyone seems supportive of their kids on there (regardless of their grades) but if this stress is "normal" then no wonder lots of children really struggle mentally.

I dont think my parents even knew when my results day was. Obviously that is far from great too. Some children were worried and emotional before their results but on the whole most were fine before hand.

OP posts:
SimoneHere · 21/08/2025 08:13

Well I presume the parents who are less invested aren’t coming into MN to post about how unbothered they are, so you are only seeing one view.

ETA that also tends to show in the results that parents post. The biggest predictor of success is parental involvement, and involved parents tend to be the ones posting, so you see a lot of good grades.

WhatNoRaisins · 21/08/2025 08:12

You hear a lot about young adults that get kind of stuck. I wonder if that feeds into parents anxiety over exam results because they don't want to be in that position of trying to get a 22 year old with no job and no idea what to do to launch.

I did my GCSEs in the 2000s and I don't think it was that different.