UMAT preparation and how to manage stress

Those of you still finishing up your HSC exams might feel a sense of relief, as you are on your way to completing yet another trial on your path towards your future career goals. Many of you may already be looking onwards to your next trial: the medicine interviews. And then there are those of you who have yet to meet these trials, as you prepare for the HSC, and begin looking at your options in UMAT preparation and interview preparation.

It’s pretty much a given that almost anyone reading this blog is currently experiencing some level of stress. This is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. However, it is important to ensure that you are well equipped to deal and manage this stress. If you fail to manage your stress properly, it is likely you will find yourself becoming anxious, overwhelmed and generally unhappy. Stress can even affect your cognitive function: it can bias your thoughts to the negative side, worsen your memory and affect your ability to concentrate. If you think that being highly stressed isn’t something worth dealing with, you’ll find yourself very, very wrong. 
 

If at this point, you still think stress management isn’t something you need to know or care about, consider this: the ability to deal with stress and high pressure is one of the key qualities that interviewers look out for in Medicine, and no doubt in many other careers. If you can demonstrate that you know, and have successfully dealt with stress in your interview, you’ll benefit immensely!

All that said and done, dealing with stress is often (like many things) easier said than done. So how do we deal with stress? Well you’ll likely find that everybody has different methods of dealing with stress, but here are a few tips and methods to help you out!
 

Plan ahead
Similar to many diseases, prevention is often better than cure. This is most definitely true for stress: if you can plan out what needs to be done, and stick to the plan, you will be able to reduce stress when you’re tackling many tasks at once; assignments and projects, for example. 

Once again, everybody will have a method that works best for them when it comes to planning: you might prefer a physical planner, or you might prefer the convenience of a digital calendar. Whichever you use, be sure to use it well and often.

When planning tasks, make sure you leave an appropriate leeway and be realistic. Plan with the knowledge that many things will often be outside of our control, and that these things can affect your timing with a task. Maybe for example, in a group project, a member will encounter some issue that will stop them from being able to do their part. If you plan with leeway, you’ll leave yourself time to deal with unexpected situations, and save yourself from stressing.
 

Have an outlet
Nobody should be spending their days only studying, sleeping and eating. People need to have variety in their lives. Having some sort of outlet, like a sport, a hobby, or anything you might enjoy will definitely help you with relieving stress. What’s important here is that when you’re spending time on sport or hobbies, you should NOT be thinking about any of the stressors in your life. Time spent on your hobbies/sport should be time away from your stressors. Another reason to consider: you might want to spend time on hobbies/sports since these extracurricular activities are expected of potential medical students by interviewers. 
 

Have a support network
Humans are social animals by nature. Having friends and family there to support you will help you in dealing with your stress immensely. Often, when you have a problem or something on your mind, getting it out there by talking to a trusted friend helps you de-stress. Sometimes your friend or family member might have ideas for how you might deal with some source of stress that you hadn’t thought of! Spending time with friends and family also helps you take some time to not think about your stressors. 
 

Have a healthy lifestyle
The mind and the body are very closely linked. Being in good physical health helps you to feel confident, and also helps you stay sharp. The benefits of exercise for the mind are well documented. With exercise and a good diet, you’ll find yourself with more energy to tackle the challenges ahead. 
 

Maintain a positive outlook/keep things in perspective
Optimism isn’t something one can force. It does however, help to keep things in perspective: doing poorly in one interview for example, does not mean you will do poorly in the others. You will have time to reflect on your mistakes, and time to improve. It’s important to recognise that even if you fail to get into medicine the first time around, you will still have opportunities to try again, as long as you are willing to try.

There are many other methods of managing your stress, along with many helpful websites and organisations that help, such as ReachOut.

As a summary: plan well ahead and have your preparations done early in case of unforeseen circumstances, have hobbies/sports aside from your studies, have a support network, take good care of your health, and don’t forget to keep things in perspective!