Keep calm and pass your exams

The final exams are just around the corner. For many students, the least of them, this is certainly not a cause for fear, but those who have limited themselves to having a good time and working just enough during the course and on the last day, it is now when they can panic. App, developed in the USA, is capable of measure stress levels and determine whether a student is really capable of facing this final stage of the course.

The study to certify this App has been carried out by researchers from the Dartmouth College who, based on a significant sample of students, were able to exempt themselves from two of the final exams due to their high levels of stress. An exemption that, on the other hand, did not save them from working during the summer to pass the course.

The research focused on the students' behavior. Aspects such as the time and quality of their phone conversations, their physical activity, their GPS location during the day and even the time they went to sleep and woke up were analyzed. With this, they came up with a series of conclusions. patterns of behavior which allow them to determine whether or not a student is mentally capable of passing the various tests of the course.

The main conclusion reached is that students with greater social and physical activity are those who are in better condition. On the other hand, those whose social interaction is minimal or who even sleep more than usual present levels of stress and depression that would make it impossible for them to pass the final exams.

With this medical-technological advancement Researchers claim to have demonstrated how phone sensors are capable of transmitting essential information for diagnosing pathologies such as stress or depression as elements for measuring students' academic performance. "The results," says this team of researchers, "serve to demonstrate that phones could be useful for continuous monitoring of students' mental health, and would become much more valid methods than occasional quick tests and questionnaires. Not only that: the basis of the study is not only useful for students, but for all kinds of people, who could improve their lives thanks to these alerts that allow them to detect significant levels of stress."

In any case, and beyond the conclusiveness of the results, StudentLife It is a new example of the so-called mHealth, that is, the mobile application in medical and health processes.