Christmas holidays: A break or just two weeks to revise for mocks?

You’ve made it! Finally your first two week holiday has arrived and boy did you need it! This is your time to relax, have fun and give yourself a break. However we are aware that some of you reading this may have mock exams as soon as this holiday is over so you’re questioning whether this is really a holiday at all. Mock exams and studying for them can really overshadow your holidays if you let them. Instead of reminding yourself that you are taking a break, if you are not careful you could use these two weeks where you were meant to take a breather to actually do some intense revision, when this is not necessarily the healthiest option. But what should you do then?

1) Actually relax. As soon the holidays begin, your first thought should not be ‘Let the revision grind begin’. Instead, you need to take a few days off to actually reflect on the possibly stressful term that you just had and just give yourself and your brain a break. A lot has happened since you started this academic year and you haven’t had that much time to process it all. Now is the time. Have a few days where you just…float. Let your brain deflate from the academic strain it has been under for three months.

2) Prepare. Once you have relaxed, plan what you want these holidays to go like and what you would like to achieve. Do not write a timed scheduled because remember this is still meant to be a break, so make sure you are flexible. But just write a whole list of everything you want to accomplish this holiday – this doesn’t necessarily have to be academic it could be related to other things that you may have been putting off during the term because you had no time for them e.g. booking your dentist appointment, watering your plants, replying to an important email. These should all be included in the list because if you structure your day based on this list, you know you won’t solely be doing academic based activities.

3) Pursue other things. You had hobbies and interests before your A-levels slowly began to overshadow a large portion of your life. The holidays are a perfect time to reconnect with things that just remind you of yourself and what you actually enjoy. We don’t know you personally so we can’t tell you what that might be but make sure you actually go and do it. This can really be anything (here’s a list of pretty standard things that you’ve probably heard before): meet up with your friends, spend time with your family, and spend time with your pets… just anything that YOU like doing.

4) Revise. Unfortunately you cannot go through the whole holiday without doing at least a bit of studying. Hopefully you have been making notes consistently throughout the term, but if not, don’t worry, this is the time to do that. Make your notes in an engaging fashion (see this blog post) with no distractions. A good way to look at many things you do in life is that when you are doing that thing make sure 100% of your energy is put into doing that thing, no matter what it may be. Studying is no different. No distractions, no phones – just you and your notes. You should’ve already written your list, so you can spend your time slowly working through it. If you go through days where you revise intensely remember to take some days off so that your brain can take the time to process the information. If things are starting to feel overwhelming, give yourself three things to complete that day. Three things is a good amount and you feel accomplished at the end of the day when you’ve finished them.

5) Structure your revision. If you know that for example, Chemistry is your first exam and you find yourself struggling then that should be something you revise first, so that you and start reviewing it first in preparation for your exams. Choose from the list you have written carefully and intelligently. Don’t simply do the subjects you find ‘easy’, do the challenging ones on purpose and ideally at the beginning so that you can get them out of the way. There’s no point hiding from the bits you don’t like because they’re going to come up in the exam either way – you might as well go over them in your own time whilst you can!

6) Ask for help/Seek help!! We really cannot stress this enough. There are so many other students doing and going through the exact same thing as you, so there’s no need to suffer alone if you are struggling. Sometimes taking 10 minutes to ask someone for help, can save you a lot of hours studying over that same subject. Save your time, please – nothing is more important than your time. You don’t just need to seek help by asking people, we don’t have to tell you that there are already endless resources online.

7) The boring, yet necessary, trio. Eat, exercise and sleep. Okay, we know it’s Christmas and this holiday is basically a one way ticket to being a couch potato and not feeling one ounce of guilt about it, and we embrace that! However, there may a day where you are studying and you find your energy levels worryingly low and this listed trio can really help you. Christmas is the time where you can basically eat chocolate for breakfast and everyone is just cool with it, and boy do we love that and no way would be tell you to stop doing things like that. We are just saying to be aware that sometimes what goes into your body affects what your body does outside. Also, exercising (and we’re not talking about those intense 30 minute cardio workout okay) can give you more energy and just in general make your feel better about yourself. There are many things that come under the bracket of ‘exercising’, the gym is not the only place you can get your body moving. And of course, as you’ve heard it countless times before – sleeping. Nowadays, I think most people almost see sleeping as a luxury rather than an actual necessity. It’s not surprising that you might wake up one day and decide you don’t want to study if you’ve only had a few hours of sleep. Your phone is not going to run away in the night – just go to sleep.

8) ENJOY YOUR CHRISTMAS. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, please just enjoy these holidays. You won’t need luck once you’ve followed these steps – you’ll go into the New Year an even more relaxed and prepared version of yourself!