For most of us, summer holiday’s been here for at least a month now, and hopefully we had the chance to go places, see people and make the most out of the ginormous amount of time that we now have on our hands. I, for one, got bored quickly. Having no assignments to prepare and no studying to do, I woke up with several free hours a day that one could only fill so much with going out, watching movies and writing on this blog. And honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised: during uni, my personal projects are scheduled around my studying and now that that’s gone, at least for a while, I feel a bit lost and confused about what I’m supposed to do.
Maybe you feel the same, or maybe you just miss reading and learning new things, or you’re maybe anxious about the challenges of the new academic year, just a couple of months away. Regardless of the reason why you found yourself reading this post, I am here to share my insights on studying for university during the summer break, and why it can actually be good and useful for your time. Not only will I give you the reasons why you should consider studying during the break, but I will also share a few tips and tricks on how to make the most out of it.
Now, before you click away thinking this girl must be mad if she seriously thinks about revising and reading during the summer holidays, allow me to tell you that keeping up with uni can actually improve your academic progress. First of all, it smooths your transition from summer break mode to study mode: if you take a full, study-free, three-months break, chances are you will find it difficult to jump right back into the middle of things when uni starts again. After not doing anything study-related for what is, technically, a quarter of a year, even the most hard-working students have a hard time coping. Then, summer studying helps you hit the ground running when the academic year starts, and quickly adapt to whatever you’ll be required to do to perform well. Finally, because you have three full months free of deadlines, assignments and projects that need to be done, you have the chance to improve your weak points and studying abilities in your own time. This is your opportunity to go back to the things that you didn’t exactly understand when they were taught in class, attack the recommended reading that you haven’t gone through, and practice whatever you’re still academically insecure about.
Took this during revision for the January exam season: it was probably the syllabus I liked the least, but it was definitely the paper I put the most effort in.
(source: personal archive)
Making an active effort to keep up with your studies during the summer break now seems like a smart and useful thing to do, but just like with anything else, it’s important to keep a healthy balance. Don’t forget that these are the summer holidays, and they exist for a reason. Make sure you reserve enough time to rest, travelling, taking up personal projects and seeing people. If you do decide that you want to study, bear in mind that it shouldn’t be as intense and demanding as it feels like when you are in uni. Study for fewer hours a day than you would normally, and take frequent breaks and days off that you would usually not afford during exam season, for example. I simply can’t stress it enough: rest, rest, rest.
Now, on the how’s of efficiently keeping up with university during the summer break. It’s essential that you start off with a little bit of housekeeping. Declutter and organise all the papers and study materials you’ve gathered during the last academic year, and decide on what’s worth keeping for further use and what you should store away. Use this opportunity to clean your desk/study space, as well: there is no way you’ll be able to work properly in an untidy or disorganised environment. Once all the physical organisation is done, you can sit down and reflect on where you’re at exactly in terms of your academic progress. What have you learned during the previous academic year and how have you used it in your assignments/projects? What was it that you found easy to learn and what did you struggle with? What modules did you enjoy and what modules did you have a hard time keeping up with? What about your grades, do they reflect your progress? Why did you exactly get those specific grades, what was the feedback you received on your work? These are just a few of the questions you can ask yourself to assess your current situation as a student.
Based on your answers to these questions, and your feelings towards your uni progress, you can set some academic goals for the summer break. It may be that you want to read more, you want to do more practice tests for a particular subject or you want to start ahead on next year’s syllabus – it can be anything you fancy or find useful! For these goals, you should decide on a schedule for doing the work. It can be that you want to study a set amount of hours per day or week, or you dedicate certain days to certain subjects – again, it’s up to you to find what suits you best. Having a schedule can help loads because during the summer break, you won’t be having set classes that you need to go, but instead, you might have other things you want to do that you will need to organise your studying around.
Since you’re in the summer break and no academic commitments limit your studying, you have the opportunity to try using different learning resources. Don’t limit yourself to revising your lectures and reading your textbooks: try reading other books and articles, look up sources and databases that you haven’t accessed before. Feel free to use web resources, documentaries, YouTube videos, games and practice tests to enhance your learning and make it fun. If your peers and friends are excited to continue their studying during the holidays, too, get together and organise weekly study sessions for which you wouldn’t have had the time during the academic year. You have so many cool options available, so use them!
During summer break, you can study things you might not have time for during the academic year.
(source: personal archive)
Similarly, you are free to improve your study skills and try different learning methods at your own pace. Try taking notes or revising in new, different ways that you haven’t tried before, and discover which of these methods work for you and which don’t. Now you have the time and the space to experiment, which you wouldn’t normally have in anticipation of a deadline or an exam. Also, this would be good preparation for the challenges that you’re going to face in the new academic year. With new modules or new types of assignments that you might be asked to do, expanding your study skills will help you adapt to anything.
As I briefly mentioned before, you can use your summer break to learn for next year before it even starts. Get informed on what subjects you’ll be taking and what reading you are supposed to do for them, and start early on that. Have a look through the study guides for these subjects, just to see what’s coming next for you, or talk to older students about what you should expect from the upcoming academic year. Although this doesn’t compare to the things that you’ll learn during your first week back at university, it will give you a bit of an idea on the future and it will help you feel ready for what’s coming your way. Again, no pressure! Just know ahead about all the important bits and bobs.
Finally, if you are really passionate about studying, and revision is not enough for you to recreate the atmosphere of university, I advise you to engage with the online studying community through social media. There are plenty of Tumblr blogs, Instagram pages and YouTube channels out there focused on studying, productivity and life at university, and now you have more time than ever to give them a go. This is a topic that I am really interested in, so maybe I can come back with a lengthier post on it, sometime in the future!
I’d very much like to hear about you, though! Do you enjoy studying? Are you planning on doing a bit of studying during your summer break? What are your recommendations for keeping up with university during a study break? Let me know what you think in the comments section down below!
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Photo sources: personal archive.