The other consequence of this over-stress on assessment is the catastrophising - give a student less than 60% (bottom of an upper Second) and some students will tell me that they've failed and they are a failure.
@KaycePollard oh yes I completely relate. I was a top-of-the-class student at a very academically competitive private school. I remember talking to someone from a different school at a party once, and them casually mentioning they’d recently scraped a C in an exam so they were pretty happy about that, and just privately feeling totally confused because I quite genuinely felt like my whole universe would implode if I ever got a C. It’s not healthy.
My school put a lot of pressure on us to be musical, sporty and all that extracurricular UCAS-enhancing stuff too, and it was only after having therapy a few years ago that I really understood how that shaped my life. It took me years to realise I could take up hobbies like sport, dancing, art, music and so on because I find them fun, and that I don’t have to be the best at it or get a certificate or a medal or something to make it worthwhile.
And for all the talk of exams being easier these days and Firsts being handed out like sweets, I speak to young people all the time now who are unbelievably stressed, putting so much pressure on themselves to do well from a ridiculously young age. Older generations always want to claim that the generations below them are lazy and spoilt and getting something for nothing, but it’s an ugly and tedious generalisation that helps no one!