3 Ways to get ahead these Summer holidays

With your first year 12 assessments done and dusted, the summer holiday countdown is well and truly underway. The upcoming break should be a time to reward yourself with some hard-earned R&R, and catch up on all those important tasks you put on hold while you mauled your way through the first term of year 12 (such as using your 30 day free trial of Stan to binge watch all 9 seasons of ‘Seinfeld’).

As important as it is to spend time recharging your batteries, you still want to make the most of your break and set yourself up for the year ahead. Summer is the perfect time to get ahead at your own pace without the interruption of school, assessments or extra-curricular activities. We aren’t saying you should spend Christmas eve pumping past-papers. In fact, ‘conventional study’ shouldn’t really be on the agenda – you’ll be doing enough of that over the next few months so don’t put yourself through the pain prematurely.

Instead, try these 3 effective ways to make the most of your summer holidays:

1. Read widely

There’s always that one kid who seems to know just about everything. He can give you a detailed analysis of the US election, a conspiracy theory about life on Mars, and a full explanation of why he believes cricket commentary is an art not a science. So, what’s his secret?

The key to just knowing stuff isn’t being a natural genius, it’s being well-read. People who are avid readers are better thinkers, innovators and generally more successful people – the sort of people who get good ATARS.

You should approach your summer holidays with a list of 5 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and try reading for at least half an hour a day. While you’re relaxing by the pool or in bed, you’re also sharpening your skills for the HSC. You’ll expand your vocabulary, picking up cool words and phrases that can be used in your essays. You’ll also become a better critical thinker, as reading other people’s opinions (especially in non-fiction) allows you to develop your understanding of how to formulate an argument – a skill that will definitely pay off in humanities subjects. Finally, reading is an amazing source of inspiration, especially from a creative point of view. When writing your discovery story, you shouldn’t be afraid to draw on an author’s style of writing or even borrow aspects of their plot. It’s a good way to avoid clichés and overcome writer's block.

When you get into the nitty gritty of year 12, you won’t have the luxury of time to read about anything that isn’t directly HSC related. Use the next two months to discover your interests, read widely and become a more worldly person – you’ll appreciate it later.

2. Don’t lose your mental fitness

There’s a reason elite athletes train during their off-season: they need to maintain their fitness or they’ll struggle to work their way back up to a peak level of performance. You are an elite athlete; the HSC is your race.

Over the last term, you worked hard to improve from your year 11 self and your year 12 self. Don’t undo this progress by losing your mental fitness. This is especially true for those of you who do maths or a language, where daily practice is essential in staying sharp.

Your revision doesn’t need to be at the same level of intensity as it would be if you were preparing for an upcoming assessment. Rather than spending 40 minutes working through a practice paper, spend 10 minutes a day watching a Maths video or doing practice questions.
Refreshing the same stuff regularly will help cement it in your long term memory, so that come January, you won’t be sitting in class feeling like you’re back at square one.

3. Maintain some daily structure

When the much longed for summer holidays roll around we can finally escape the daily grind of term time. But as tempting as it is to throw all structure out the window, stay in bed till lunch time, and watch Netflix till 3am, you’ll only live to regret it. Your holidays will slip by in a blur and you’ll be left feeling drained, unmotivated and already behind in terms of study by the time school goes back.

Don’t fall into the trap of literally doing nothing!

At the same time, this doesn’t mean planning your day to the hour, or waking up to your school alarm (at like 6:30am), but simply making sure you’re productive.

So maybe try setting your alarm for 9am that way you can have a bit of a sleep in but you won’t feel bad for wasting the day. And whether your plans for the day include going to the beach with your friends or having a day to binge watch your favourite TV show, make a plan and stick to it.

That way, when it comes time to fit in a bit of study in the day: whether that’d be punching out a paragraph of your creative writing or fitting in a sneaky Atomi video, you’ve still had a really balanced day where you can enjoy your summer holidays, fit in a bit of study and still have a bit of structure to your day. Trust me, you’ll find it much easier to hit the ground running when term goes back.

So at the risk of sounding too bitter sweet, you should enjoy this break because it’s the last proper one you’ll have for the remainder of the year. In saying that, you should also make the most of these holidays and use them to your advantage - time is on your side:

• Pick up a book (or five) and read widely
• Keep up that mental fitness by doing some light revision and
• Make sure to maintain a routine so that you can truly get the most out of the holidays.

If you balance a lifestyle of long lunches and lazy days at the beach with our advice, come term 1 you’ll be able to put your best foot forward to smash the year ahead.