Discussion Question - Do you study ahead in unviersity breaks?
I'm curious to what everyone does. When summer or winter break starts and you are in-between courses, do you study for the upcoming semester or relax the entire break?
For me personally, I do very little to 0 study ahead. I find exams completely drain my battery, so I really enjoy 4 weeks or more of non-academic activties. But I have seen some people love to look up lecture notes and study ahead.
What about you?
Comments
@Boxmore interesting question, as I often wonder this about other people myself.
I've maybe met one person who studies in the break, which shocked me because although I would love to be that person I simply cannot. I am too lazy and just want to enjoy my holiday. Maybe I'll check out some unit content a week or so before in preparation, but I'm honestly not stuck into it until I go back.
I give myself the whole break, @Boxmore ! I don't do any study as I've finished my courses and I'm exhausted so I like to use my break to truly relax 😌 Perhaps I'll check out the work a week before, but apart from that, absolutely nothing!
Hi @Boxmore
I usually do the same and spend little time studying during the holidays. My courses are usually not up until the week before we go back, so often I will spend a couple of days the week before going over the content, putting key dates into my calendar and writing them out, looking at the readings. I will also try to go to campus during the holidays to find out where my classes are, especially if I haven't been to that classroom before. I generally try to recharge, focus on my self-care, and do the things I don't get the chance to do during uni.
This works best for me, but it might not for others.
Hi @Boxmore,
This is a really interesting topic of discussion here. I am in an undergraduate course which requires a good GPA to get into a postgraduate, so personally, yes, I do study ahead during breaks. Nothing crazy though. Within around two weeks of coming back I do more preparation work, which involves a little bit of research and study on some topics so I at least feel somewhat introduced to the content before I actually learn it in classes.
I understand this differs with everyone, depending on what course you are doing and overall if studying beforehand makes you feel more comfortable or if it makes you overwhelmed.
Hey @Boxmore
It’s completely understandable to need the full break to recharge after exams. I don’t think there’s really a right or wrong way to do things. Whatever works best for each individual.
For me, my unit sites go up a week before the semester starts. I usually spend a couple days during the week organising my schedule, making my note documents look the way I want them to, and starting the content for week one. I like to start early so that I have a bit of a buffer in case something goes wrong, and I can’t study as much as I would like to. Usually, I'm able to stay a bit ahead and reduce the amount of end of semester stress. The amount of prep work I do also depends on how much reading the subjects. If I have a bunch of reading heavy subjects, I prioritise getting the first week of reading done before I start the semester.
Hi @Boxmore I also tend to do very minimal study as possible during the break! Sometimes this is an intentional choice and other times I intend to study ahead but then don't 😂.
I about half way through my mid year break at the moment. What I intended at the beginning of the break was to take 2 weeks to rest and then spend the last 2 doing a LITTLE bit of organising for next semester. We'll see how I go though, once I start the break it's so hard to get back into it before strictly necessary. One thing I always try to do though is getting ahead of reading- I do some English subjects as part of my degree so there's always plently of novels/poetry that I can start on before the break ends. As I personally love reading this is always fun for me anyway so it's kinda a win win in the sense that I can do something I like and also something that helps prepare me for the upcoming semester.
Also very interested to hear what others have to say about this!! I have a hunch it might have quite a bit to do with people's individual degrees and also where they're at in their degrees year wise 🤔
