You are rested, sufficiently full of festive food, and ready to take on your next term. Right? If not, here’s how you to prepare for your second term at uni.
Get it done!
Look, this is the one thing that nobody wants to hear, but everyone needs to. There isn’t going to be a magical ‘tip’ that will get your work done in double time so you can enjoy Christmas.
Learn from my mistakes (which I make year after year!): Give yourself the best starting point that you can.
If you have January deadlines, try to get any work done before the holidays ends. So how will you do it?
- Prepare a flexible plan for your studying over Christmas, but don’t forget to leave time for yourself.
- Find somewhere to study that isn’t your house – If you’ve got a long train journey home or back to university, use this to your advantage. If your festive period is anything as mad as mine, this will be one of the only quiet times of your two weeks!
- Be realistic about what you can achieve because pressuring yourself will likely result in the opposite of studying.
Relax
Almost a complete contradiction to my last point, relaxing is one of the most important parts of your university preparation. Most universities don’t have a half-term break between January and Easter, so you have a long time until the work lets up again. Check out my ‘Downtime over Christmas’ article for some ideas to take your mind off university over the Christmas period.
See also: Five Top Tips To Revise At University
Read your assigned texts
Take it from someone who has been there. Your second term at university is going to get considerably more stressful, with a focus on end of year exams and assignments. You’ll have very little time to eat and sleep, let alone read books. If you do have time to read your textbooks in term time, the chances are that you’re going to fall asleep anyway. So, use your time in the Christmas holidays to prepare and, even if it is just skimming them – read your uni texts.
Budget
Take what you learned from your first term and budget accordingly. If your first term budget worked, stick to it. If not, why not? There aren’t any Christmas presents to buy this term, so it should be a little easier.
Keep in touch with friends
I’d imagine that this one goes without saying. After living with your uni friends and spending every minute of the day with them, adjusting to being away from them won’t be easy. Keep in touch with them through facetime, messenger, phone calls. When you get back to uni, it will be like you never left.
Read next: Are Digital Or Paper Notes Better?