9 Tips To Prepare For Oppositions With Maximum Efficiency
Taking exams is, for many people, one of the main investments of time and effort they will make throughout their lives. It is a journey that lasts months and years and that is precisely why those who choose this try to dedicate themselves to study with all their strength, so that this sacrifice is not in vain.
However… to what extent can the student modify his/her habits to achieve the best possible exam on test day? Many times people fail to answer this question, because it is assumed that they simply have to study or perform a series of exercises many times.
The mistake is that, in practice, that “simply” does not exist: there are many things we can do to perform better, and many of them escape the traditional definition of what studying or practicing is supposed to be. If we understand that the process of preparing for competitive exams is complex and that small changes when studying have a great effect after weeks and months, we will have a great advantage.
In this article We will see a series of tips to prepare for the oppositions and perform at your best, making the most of your time the resources and capabilities you have as a student.
These are some keys that you can apply to your daily life to prepare for exams, making the most of the time you have available.
1. Prepare yourself mentally
When preparing for oppositions, Not all our efforts should focus on the content of the subject for which we are examined ; We must also invest attention and efforts in managing our psychological state.
It is useless to know that in theory studying consists of reading and memorizing, if we forget that in practice we also need to regulate our anxiety, know how to motivate ourselves, organize ourselves, know tricks to concentrate better… In short, attend to everything we can. change ourselves to perform better both in preparation and on the day of the test.
Precisely for this reason it is useful to have psychological assistance in preparing for the oppositions. It is one thing to study with the support and information of experts in what we study, and another have personalized attention from specialists in the study process and performance.
So, the first piece of advice is to discard the old idea that to prepare for an exam you simply have to spend a lot of time working on the subject, and you have to adopt a broader perspective of the challenge before us. As we will see, many of the tips we will see go in this direction.
2. Have study locations predefined
Your study place is the place where you will spend a good part of the hours of the week, so It is worth checking that it is used for studying and that it does not expose you to distractions or noise or other discomforts. Small details such as paying attention to whether the chair is comfortable or not can make a difference in the medium and long term.
If the place where you will study does not belong to you, or if you need to have several places to alternate between, you should at least be very clear at all times which ones they are, to avoid improvisations that could take up your time.
3. Start with a phased time investment plan
The best option is to start studying a certain number of hours a week, and after two or three months, add more hours per week, to add a few more after a month. For example, you can start with 5 hours a day, then increase it to 6, and then increase it to 8.
Why do it this way? Wouldn’t it be more logical to take advantage of as much time as possible from the beginning? In practice, no; Think of it as building your own study method by which you will avoid getting a very bad feeling at the beginning and becoming demotivated or simply not being able to bear the fatigue. If you start little by little, it will be easier for you to “connect” with the study dynamics, begin to gain inertia, and reach a point where you have sufficient preparation to assume great loads of responsibility.
4. Create even schedules
Try to dedicate the same amount of time each day of study as much as possible, without irregularities. This way, you will avoid having “gaps” in your weekly plan, moments in which you do not have time to review (even just mentally) the contents of the previous day and continue moving forward at the same time. Doing this decreases the chances that you will forget many things from the previous day.
5. Dosage your free time
If you focus on studying or practicing as much as possible and do not pay attention to how you should manage your free time, you will end up without free time in which you can really do what you want, and wasting time in study sessions due to your fatigue and difficulties. to concentrate. Having a clear schedule and trying to follow it strictly is essential, a necessary requirement not so that you do well in the tests, but so that you do not throw in the towel a few weeks after starting.
6. Sleep well and eat well
The simple fact of sleeping poorly for a day or eating things that are not entirely healthy for several days is very noticeable in the performance of those who are preparing for exams. There is no clear separation between physical health and mental health so you will not be able to concentrate, memorize or remember well if you do not take care of yourself in the most basic aspects.
Reviewing is very important. Not only does it help not to forget what has been seen in the notes and textbooks; besides, allows us to see new connections between ideas links that we overlooked the first time but that automatically occur to us at a second glance, for the simple fact of having been thinking about other things before.
8. Create your plans to disconnect
Every week, you should be able to have at least one plan that allows you to completely disconnect and refresh yourself mentally. Nature walks are very useful for this, as they allow us to get away from everything that reminds us of our responsibilities and also allow us to relax in cozy environments. Moderate exercise also works well because it offers us a very specific and relatively simple goal on which we can focus, forgetting about the rest for a moment.
9. Adopt a global vision of the challenge
Beyond the specific advice that we have seen so far for preparing for exams, it is advisable to adopt a global perspective about how the study is going, what aspects fail the most and how we can correct or reinforce them as we go.
Some teams of psychologists, including UPAD, offer services related to personalized support from expert psychologists in high-performance processes. Through these specialized psychological intervention services we address all aspects of exam preparation that surround the subject to be studied itself, and we provide training guidelines to reach the day of the test in the best possible conditions, so that the months of effort give results. its fruits. If you are interested in receiving information about these services, contact us by clicking here.
