Dogs help students prepare for finals

Finals mean quiet halls, as students get as ready as possible. Some like study groups, some focus alone. Others choose to do this.

Animal Samaritans brought therapy dogs to Marywood-Palm Valley School to help students de-stress during final exams.

“We wanted to reduce the anxiety of our students on test taking day for finals. A lot of these students have just come off of taking advanced placement testing, so with all that going on, we wanted to give them an atmosphere where they can take a breath, calm down, and relax.”

Senior Jena Farley says she needs calm before her english and physics finals.

“Not cramming before. I have to just stop and not think about it. Listening to music, or dogs.”

Soft to the touch, cute to look, and, “They will lower they’re stress level. It’s a scientific fact that when you do pet a dog, you’re blood pressure will go down.”

“We know for instance people going in for an outpatient surgery, if they can pet a dog for 20 minutes, they find they can relieve stress levels as much as 37%. That has been measured.”

The exams started at ten o’clock and most students get to school early to study. They had a chance to come here with the dogs and de-stress.

“It is in your mind, and if you’re not in a good mental state, you’re not going to do well on the exam,”

Who knew man’s best friend can be man’s best test-taking tool.