Breakdown of Kiedy stresuję się egzaminem, powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach.
Questions & Answers about Kiedy stresuję się egzaminem, powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach.
In Polish there is a reflexive verb stresować się, which means to be stressed / to get stressed / to feel stressed.
- stresować (without się) would mean to stress someone/something, i.e. to cause stress in somebody else. This form is very rare in everyday speech.
- stresować się is the usual, idiomatic way to say that you yourself are stressed.
So:
- Kiedy stresuję się egzaminem = When I’m stressed about the exam.
- Without się, it would sound wrong in standard Polish in this meaning.
The verb stresować się takes the instrumental case.
You ask: stresować się kim? czym? (whom? what? – instrumental case questions)
- egzamin (nominative) – basic dictionary form
- egzaminem (instrumental) – “with/by the exam” → required after stresować się
So the pattern is:
- stresuję się egzaminem – I’m stressed about the exam
- stresuję się pracą – I’m stressed about work
- stresuję się sytuacją – I’m stressed about the situation
Using egzaminu (genitive) here would be ungrammatical with this verb.
Yes, Kiedy się stresuję egzaminem is also correct and natural.
In Polish, the little word się is a clitic and usually appears:
- right after the verb (stresuję się)
- or right after a conjunction/particle (kiedy się stresuję)
Acceptable versions here:
- Kiedy stresuję się egzaminem…
- Kiedy się stresuję egzaminem…
But you cannot put się at the very end:
- ✗ Kiedy stresuję egzaminem się… – incorrect
Because kiedy introduces a subordinate clause (“when I’m stressed about the exam”), which must be separated from the main clause by a comma.
Structure:
- Subordinate clause: Kiedy stresuję się egzaminem
- Main clause: powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach
Rule (simplified):
- If a sentence starts with kiedy, gdy, bo, że, etc., and that clause comes before the main clause, you put a comma after it.
You could also flip the order:
- Powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach, kiedy stresuję się egzaminem.
Here, the comma still separates the subordinate clause from the main clause.
Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:
powtarzam materiał
- literally: I repeat the material
- idiomatically: I review / revise / go over the material again
- implies you already learned it before and are going back over it.
uczę się materiału
- literally: I learn the material
- suggests you are learning it (maybe for the first time), not necessarily reviewing.
In the context of preparing for an exam, powtarzać materiał is a very natural collocation: it corresponds well to to revise / to review for an exam.
All three verbs are in the present tense, imperfective aspect, and here they express a general, habitual action:
- stresuję się – I (tend to) get stressed / I’m usually stressed
- powtarzam – I (usually) revise
- myślę – I (usually) think
Just like in English When I’m stressed, I revise and think less about grades, Polish present tense + imperfective aspect can describe repeated, typical behavior.
If you used perfective forms (e.g. zestresuję się), the meaning would change to a one-time, completed event:
- Kiedy się zestresuję egzaminem, …
– When I (once) get stressed about the exam, … (more like “the moment I get stressed…”, not a general habit).
Both mniej myślę o ocenach and myślę mniej o ocenach are grammatically correct and acceptable.
- mniej myślę o ocenach – slightly stronger emphasis on how much you think about grades (the quantity is reduced).
- myślę mniej o ocenach – a bit more neutral; puts the verb first, then the adverb.
In everyday speech, the difference is very subtle, and both orders will usually sound fine. The original mniej myślę o ocenach is a natural, fluent choice.
The verb myśleć normally takes o + locative.
You ask: myśleć o kim? o czym? (about whom? about what? – locative case questions)
- ocena – “grade/mark” (nominative singular)
- o ocenach – “about grades” (locative plural)
So:
- myślę o egzaminie – I think about the exam
- myślę o pracy – I think about work
- myślę o ocenach – I think about grades
Using o oceny would be incorrect: o always triggers the locative here.
ocena (plural oceny) in a school/university context usually means grade/mark (e.g. A, B, 5, 4, etc., depending on the system).
So:
- myślę o ocenach – I think about my grades / marks
Outside school context, ocena can also mean assessment/judgment (someone’s evaluation of you or something), but in a sentence with egzaminem it strongly suggests school grades.
In Polish, we usually do not put a comma before i (and) when it joins two verbs with the same subject inside one clause.
Here, the subject (I) is the same for both verbs:
- powtarzam materiał
- mniej myślę o ocenach
They are two actions of the same subject inside one main clause, linked by i:
- powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach
So, no comma before i. A comma would appear if i connected larger clauses that both had their own internal structure, or in some special stylistic cases.
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.
- stresuję się egzaminem – literally: I stress myself with the exam → idiomatically: I’m stressed about the exam itself.
- stresuję się przed egzaminem – I’m stressed before the exam (in the time leading up to it).
Both are correct, but:
- egzaminem (instrumental without preposition) focuses on the exam as the cause of your stress.
- przed egzaminem (preposition + instrumental) focuses more on the time period before the exam.
Yes, you can say:
- Gdy stresuję się egzaminem, powtarzam materiał i mniej myślę o ocenach.
In this context, kiedy and gdy are nearly synonyms, both meaning when. Differences:
- kiedy – very common in both spoken and written Polish.
- gdy – feels a bit more literary or formal, but is also normal in everyday language.
Meaning-wise in this sentence, there’s no real change.