On Monday, 12 June 2023, Sanja Diósy and Maja Matković, staff members of the Office for Psychological Counselling of Students, delivered a lecture for students entitled “How to Cope with Stress During Examination Periods?” in the Small Ceremonial Hall of the Faculty.

The aim of the lecture was to educate students about stress associated with student life and provide them with advice on managing stress in order to study more effectively. Seven of the fifteen registered students attended the lecture.

The first part of the lecture focused on the concept of stress, how it develops and the different responses to it. The cognitive behavioural triangle, which illustrates the connection between thoughts, emotions and behaviour, was explained to the students, along with the most common thinking errors that occur during examination periods. Psychologist Diósy emphasised the importance of assessing stressful situations realistically, as students often make catastrophic and unrealistic predictions about the outcomes of examinations and examination periods, which unnecessarily increase anxiety. She explained how to develop alternative, more balanced predictions in order to reduce stress.

Since procrastination, poor time management, a lack of specific goals and insufficient motivation increase student stress, the second part of the lecture addressed these factors. Psychologist Matković explained how to set goals properly, organise one’s time and avoid procrastination. She also emphasised that students most often postpone studying not because of laziness, as is commonly assumed, but because of fear of failure, perfectionism, low self-esteem and anxiety. At the end of her presentation, she discussed ways of motivating oneself to study through self-reinforcement.

During registration, students had the opportunity to submit questions related to the topic in advance. The final part of the lecture was therefore organised as a Q&A session in which the lecturers answered the submitted questions. By asking additional questions, the students showed great interest in the topic and initiated a constructive discussion not only on stress prevention but also on factors affecting concentration while studying, such as excessive use of social media. Student feedback on the quality and usefulness of the lecture was very positive.

The Counselling Office staff announced a larger number of lectures and workshops beginning in the next academic year and invited students to submit suggestions for lecture and workshop topics to the Counselling Office at savjetovaliste@ffos.hr, so that their activities could better respond to students’ specific needs.