(China Daily)

The national college entrance exams will be held from Saturday to Monday, and students and parents are feeling the pressure.

In March, the Guangdong provincial health education institute polled 1,850 students due to take the exam, and their parents, and found that 90 percent of both said they were feeling so much pressure it was affecting their health conditions.

"The exam is not just about the students, but also the parents," Li Min, a Guangzhou mother whose daughter will sit the exam this weekend, said. "I have been stressed out for the past year, and as the exam has neared, I have been feeling dizzy and nervous. I get headaches and even lose my appetite," she said. Li said she gets up at 5 a.m. each day to make breakfast for her daughter, who begins studying as soon as she has eaten. She said she no longer watches TV in the evening, as her daughter needs quiet. At about midnight, she goes to bed, after her daughter has finished her day's work.

Hao Hongwei, a psychologist from the Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said: "Both students and parents are under pressure at this time, but if parents become too stressed, some of the pressure they are feeling will be transferred to their children." Also, the high expectations parents have for their children, can add pressure and affect their performance in the exam, he said. What parents should be doing right now is helping their children to relax by talking to them and listening to their concerns, Hao said.

  (China Daily)