How to promote stress management in the face of competitive examinations?

Although the oppositions have to do with the way in which the administration fills positions with positions established by the State, there is no doubt that it is not a simple bureaucratic process.

It is a phenomenon with a clear human and psychological dimension, and of all the emotional elements involved in it, one of the most important is stress management.

And is that the fact of preparing for an examination usually makes it easier for candidates to become more stressed people than usual compared to the rest of the population. Fortunately, from Psychology there are proposals to manage the emotions and feelings linked to this discomfort.

• Related article: "Types of stress and their triggers"

Why is it important to prepare psychologically for oppositions?

Stress is a form of psychological pain that, in most cases, is completely natural and even beneficial. The biological and psychological mechanisms on which they are based are the fruit of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, which has led to our lineage. to have several "tricks up your sleeve" to quickly adapt to situations of danger or crisis in which you have to do something as soon as possible possible.

Of course, when we expose ourselves to situations that keep us in tension for longer periods of Normally, it is easy for problems to arise, and this happens many times with the preparation of the oppositions. The more persistent that external source of stress is, the more likely we are to participate in maintaining this inadvertently adopting dysfunctional ways of managing our emotions. In these cases, stress becomes one of the causes of our problems, instead of being a resource to adapt to them, thus creating a vicious circle.

So when we prepare to run for competitive examinations, we are not predestined to suffer from mental health problems, but we do have a greater risk of suffering unnecessarily or even involuntarily participating in the onset of psychopathology: a phobia, a mood disorder, panic attack, etc. Given these possibilities it is better know some of the keys to stress management so as not to let the study sessions applied to our day-to-day life for months take their toll.

5 tips to learn to manage stress in the face of competitive examinations

The first rule to know how to manage stress is to assume that there are no magic recipes, nor infallible ways to ensure total avoidance of discomfort from being anxious or stressed. Emotions always have an advantage over our strategies and our voluntary actions, going ahead of them, although we do have room for maneuver to modulate their intensity and to increase or decrease the chances of experiencing them given a context determined.

So the tips below are not perfect or guarantee stress-free, but are based on principles used in psychotherapy and can help you emotionally cope with those months of hard preparation for oppositions. In any case, you must be clear that in cases of severe discomfort, it is essential to seek professional help in psychotherapy.

1. Set a schedule that includes the important moments of the day

Your schedule should be as detailed as possible, limiting when the main blocks of activities of your day from Monday to Sunday begin and when they end. This includes both study sessions and the time between them, including (and this is very important) sleep and rest periods during the day. We will see the latter in more detail in the next section.

2. Plan your moments of rest

If you assume that your study sessions will consist of periods of several hours in a row in which you will be preparing for the exam without detailing anything else in your schedule, you are doing it wrong. You should plan that for every 40 or 50 minutes of study, you should rest for at least 10 minutes. In this way you will ensure that you can make use of your maximum attention span, avoiding spending half an hour looking at your notes without being able to assimilate anything you read.

During these breaks, it is important that you do not remain in the chair you were in, that you stretch your legs and that you can look elsewhere than at the computer screen, your notes or the books you have been using. That way you will let your eyes rest. Remember that physical fatigue also produces mental fatigue, and this state of weakness predisposes you to enter a more intense state of stress to try to “compensate” for that vulnerability.

In addition, it is important that from time to time on the same day these small breaks are intercalled with longer ones, of at least half an hour.

• You may be interested in: "The 4 differences between stress and insomnia: keys to distinguish them"

3. Assume that bedtime is one of the most important of the day

Something as simple as sleeping 45 minutes less than you should will make you perform significantly less in that study day. This includes trouble concentrating, trouble remembering, and even physical discomfort. In addition, if lack of sleep becomes a persistent problem in your day to day, the physical exhaustion that it will also affect your brain, exposing you more to stress and even to symptoms of the type depressant.

Therefore, it is very important that you are clear about the exact moment when you should be in bed with the light off. If necessary, include in your schedule not only that moment, but also the preparation activities before going to sleep: brushing your teeth, clearing your table, etc.

4. Include moments of leisure in your exam preparation program

You should not see leisure moments as a waste of time, but rather they can also be an element that helps you better manage your emotions and your life in general.

Beyond bringing you well-being in a subjective sense, having the possibility of disconnecting serves both as an incentive and a source of self-motivation (for For example, so that you can consider “earning” those moments by completing your study schedule) as well as allowing your brain to receive stimuli as well from areas of your life that have nothing to do with oppositions, which is beneficial when it comes to maintaining good health mental.

5. Fill in a personal journal

Finally, the routine of filling in a personal diary can help you manage stress in the face of oppositions because it will make it more difficult for you. easy to spot dysfunctional behavior patterns that you use to vent the anxiety and tension that sometimes you will feel.

Check if you get used to performing rituals to "cover" that discomfort, such as going to the fridge and eating without hunger, or smoking, etc. Once you have recognized these actions that you perform almost unconsciously, you can write down their frequency and Recognize the moments when it occurs to you to carry out these behaviors, which will make it easier to avoid them on time.

Are you looking for psychological assistance to prepare for exams?

The preparation for public examinations is a very complex and psychologically demanding process, so Some psychotherapy centers have developed programs specifically designed for this kind of needs.

On UPAD Psychology and Coaching We have been serving both people with diagnosable mental health problems and professional projects that require mental preparation for years; We work with professional athletes, opponents, senior company officials, and all kinds of people exposed to pressure due to their short, medium and long-term goals.

If you are interested in knowing more about our services, get in touch with us: we attend in face-to-face sessions in our center located in Madrid, and also through online sessions by video call.