Thinking about studying competitive exams? The reward of a permanent job with good working conditions for life is a horizon that more and more people seek to achieve. But the path is not easy and making the decision to dedicate yourself to the arduous task of studying enormous amounts of topics and competing with tens of thousands of candidates is not easy either.
Therefore, before rolling up your sleeves and facing an opposition agenda, it is important to ask yourself: am I worth taking the opposition? Is it really what I want to do? Do I have suitable circumstances to venture out? At La Vanguardia we speak with experts, both trainers and psychologists, who give us the keys to launch (or not) into this titanic but fruitful long-distance race.
Everyone can study competitive exams and everyone takes advantage of their qualities and virtues, but those who work immersed in the competitive world highlight some skills as especially important to succeed in this type of exam, as well as the questions that one should ask themselves before taking the exam. make this important decision.
Joaquín Garrido, director of the CEAPRO academy and psychologist, assures La Vanguardia that “liking studying and learning is key,” since the syllabi contain a large amount of information and if you do not have a restless mind, you will enjoy the training period, It is very common for it to be made excessively hard. It’s not about liking all subjects, but “liking it a little is vital,” he adds.
This idea agrees with Elisa Ramos, a psychologist specializing in opposition candidates, who tells this newspaper that it is essential that “what you are preparing for is something that you like”, not only because of the time that must be invested learning the subject, but also because Then you’re going to have to do that job, and this is when the joy of getting a job for life can turn into a nightmare. “It is something that seems very basic but is not always fulfilled. I’m not saying that it fills you up, but that you like it,” she qualifies.
With all this, Fernando Miralles, a psychologist with more than 30 years of experience as a coach for competitive exams and a professor at the San Pablo CEU University in Madrid, advises doing a prior and exhaustive investigation of what you are going to study, what the work you are going to consist of. will be performed once the objective is achieved and even the approximate salary that will be received.
All the experts consulted agree that discipline and perseverance are crucial faculties for the success of an opponent. This is highlighted by the director of the academy through which more than 20,000 students have passed, who insists on the importance of being “serious at work” and “disciplined to be able to keep up.” “If his job is to be an opponent, he has to be a good professional and not allow himself many distractions,” he says.
“The perfect opponent has perseverance, insists and also has the ability to motivate himself,” says Elisa Ramos. And Miralles pronounces along these same lines: “Effort and perseverance are the two words that lead to success.”
There is also a consensus that being hardworking is much more important than being intelligent. “I wouldn’t say that it is necessary to be especially intelligent,” Garrido adds, “more important than being brilliant is being consistent at work.”
“I always tell my patients that there are 5% of intelligent people and 95% of constant people who oppose it,” says Miralles. The one who gets the spot is normally “the one who doesn’t get nervous, the one who knows the topics, the one who knows how to synthesize and study, the one who sleeps and rests,” he adds.
Ramos, for his part, believes that “intelligence is not a limitation because in the end, competitive exams are about memorizing, memorizing and memorizing, and even this process can be worked on with study techniques, acquiring good habits, etc.” “More than intelligence Consistency, effort and seeing things in the long term are important,” says this psychologist.
The opponent’s process is an emotional roller coaster and they usually suffer from anxiety, moments of depression and a certain social isolation that must be overcome. Therefore, dedicating yourself body and soul to studying to risk everything in one or several exams has always been thought to require great mental strength.
However, Garrido breaks the myth of the importance of being mentally strong: “There are people who may not be especially mentally strong and that makes them have a certain level of insecurity that can be good to a certain point,” “a small nuance.” of insecurity or doubt can make them more constant at work, trying to crush things more and in the end it is what usually works in competitive exams,” Garrido reflects.
Ramos does not entirely agree and clarifies that “the insecurity that makes you review and consolidate can be good, but a constant insecurity that makes you think that you know nothing and you go into a loop, I don’t see it as something positive.”
If you are organized, you already have a way to go when studying competitive exams, if not, luckily this is a quality that can be learned and trained, but it requires adding extra effort.
“The most important thing, especially if you are combining work, motherhood or something else, you have to organize yourself very well” to have order, schedules and objectives, because that “reduces anxiety, uncertainty and overwhelm a lot”, very important problems. usual for the opponents, explains Ramos.
If you are considering taking the exam as a quick way out and you are an impatient person, think twice. “We are short-termists in general and society is made so that we want things now” and in the oppositions this is not the case, all the experts consulted insist that it is a long-distance race “and maybe it is not a year or two, maybe The best is three or four, so you have to look at it realistically,” advises Ramos.
“The person has to see that it is a long-term career, that it is an investment of a few years (…) and you should not expect to pass on the first try”, “you have to study for one, two or three years until you pass”, Miralles agrees and if you have to fail a call, you must have the strength to continue studying and investing in the chosen objective.
But to be an opposition candidate in optimal conditions, not only are your qualities and personality important, the environment can also play a key role because reality is still around while one studies.
As it is logical to think, the ideal is not to have financial or family burdens, to have maximum support from your environment and not to be working in order to be able to dedicate one hundred percent of your time and energy to studying. Every person who has ever faced the opposition process in other, less favorable circumstances, such as combining it with a job or taking care of a family, has thought that they are at a disadvantage competing with young people who live with their parents, who do not yet have to think about paying. bills, who put food first and who have all the energy and time in the world.
And that’s right, external circumstances are relevant and that’s why it’s also a good idea to think about them before throwing your weight around and opposing.
First of all, you have to have time to study, so circumstances such as having a job or people in your care make the task difficult, although they do not make it impossible. “The most important thing is to organize, especially if you are combining it,” says Miralles, who tells La Vanguardia that there are no standard circumstances or absolute truths, that sometimes working a reduced schedule is good for some people who are suffering from anxiety about the social isolation from studying or who have great concern about the economic situation that prevents them from focusing.
Another relevant external factor when facing exams is “that your environment understands how the process is going, that they support you, that they see it well.” It seems like a simple thing, but Ramos says that the importance it has is often not studied and there are many cases in which “relatives themselves sometimes sabotage the process” with an environment in which they do not take seriously what to prepare. oppositions must be seen as a job, for example a mother who sends you to buy bread while you study or a couple who does not take care of the children when you are in an online class… it is important to have support around you that does not make the task difficult , already exhausting.
Finally, money is always around any decision in which you have to invest so much time. Having financial support, whether through having savings, because the family can support the opponent or receiving a benefit, is important for several reasons; because working while studying takes up a lot of time and energy, which complicates fully engaging in studying and because when there is no economic cushion, a logical concern is generated that prevents us from focusing on the objective set as an opponent.
With all this about standardizing profiles, because there are personal characteristics that undoubtedly help to be better candidates and pave the way, the experts we have spoken with agree that almost everyone is a viable candidate; Some of the qualities such as routine, study habit and even the ability to speak in public when it comes to tests in which you have to “sing” (orally present a topic), can be learned and trained.
It is true that there are those who have it easier, those who fit better into the perfect profile of a disciplined, hard-working, tenacious person, with mental strength and without financial problems or family distractions, but each person is a world with the capacity to surprise and break the statistics. and the importance of motivation or vocation that leads to success cannot be underestimated.
