October half term: Can I just chill out?

FINALLY A BREAK! It really was needed. Did that feel like the longest term of your life and are you finally glad it’s over? Or did it go by so quickly that you can’t believe it’s already half term? Either way take a moment to congratulate yourself for getting through your first term of A-levels/GCSE’s, you made it baby! However, you must know what anytime your school tells you ‘Come on take a break!’ it feels a bit patronising, like they are subtly telling you that the grind in fact never stops. So what is a student to do in this half term? Chill out and reflect on your first term of A-levels or begin the intense revision? Well, all will be cleared up in this single blog post…

1) Chill out. You need it. Don’t you dare begin revising as soon as the term ends. It’s a break for a reason! If you begin revising as soon as your holiday begins and you go all in straight away, you will probably end up burning out halfway through the week. Relax and let your mind rest and reflect on the hectic half of a term you have just experienced.

2) Do something that you enjoy. We don’t want to list the classic things of ‘going out with your friends’, but honestly this is a good time to catch up with everyone since you probably didn’t have that much time to during term time. Don’t meet up for a revision session (if you really want to you can but we don’t really suggest you do this so early on), just hang out with one another. As cheesy as it sounds, make new memories!

3) Go to open days. If you are in the last year of your A-level’s, then you might be looking at university applications (particularly places like Oxbridge). This is the perfect time, when you have the least amount of academic pressure on you, to start booking open days so that you can get a feel of the different types of universities offering the course that you’re interested in. Or even better, if you are unsure what you want to study, this is a great way to check out the different departments that university offers and what studying a particular subject would be like.

4) Review your notes. We think that this is the furthest you should go in terms of sorting out anything related to academics during this half term. The beginning of the school year ca be quite stressful, and work can start piling up quite quickly because you are having to re-adjust (especially if you have made the leap from your GCSE’s to your A level’s). So, this means that you may be missing a few notes here and there. This is the time to make sure all your notes are up to date and organised so that when you go back to school after a week, you won’t be frantically searching for things.

5) Organise yo self. This is a bit like the last point, but with slightly more depth. Try and make sure you actually understand this half term’s content and it is consolidated in your head so that when you go back, you won’t have to remind yourself of things all the time. We don’t mean do past papers, just make sure you have grasped all the concepts you have gone over in lessons. Also, make sure that all your notes have some sort of organised system so that you can always easily find them. Trust us, you’ll be thanking yourself at the end of the year when you need to start reviewing earlier content!

In conclusion, chill out and just organise yourself a little and all should be smooth.