This picture is really important to me. It was July 2015 and I decided to go to London for a study vacation.
I decided to do it alone, I was so scared because it was the first time traveling alone.
I was only 19, I didn’t fell good (mentally speaking) and it became a holiday where I tried to find myself again. Of course in didn’t work.
I remember my flight was 2 1/2 hour late, and I started to freak out because I had planned everything and that delay ruined my plans, especially the train ride because the one I had to catch was the last one, so I had to say byebye to my beloved train.
I spent all my flight thinking about what to do, how to reach my host family. Of course my phone didn’t work because I was in a foreign country so i wasn’t unable to contact my host family to let them know that I was there and I was coming.
In the end I finally made to Waterloo station, I’ve take a cab and at 11pm I made it to my host family (with a 50£ cab ride) and I started my adventure.
I’ll do different posts about all the adventure I had in London, the good and the bad stuff I’ve been through, and I’ll try to explain why having a study vacation is a life changing experience.
XO Jess.
P.S. If i’ve made grammar errors, and I know I have, please DM me so i can correct them and improve my english.
Heey everyone! Lately I've been on my studying vacation (meaning don't have school so I can study for A-levels/matriculation examinations) and tried to study... And that is also why I haven't posted anything on here for a while.
I have lately started to go on a walk on frozen lake during my study breaks . Otherwise it is nice I think but I usually end up walking like 5 km instead of tghe planned max 2 km...😂
Btw does any one have some last minute studying tips? The matriculation examinations start next week and I'm getting a bit stressed😬
1. Create a master post of everything you plan to study. This is to make sure that you don’t miss out on any lesson or topic. It’s also handy if you don’t plan to follow a strict schedule and if you want to vary the topics you want to study. (NOTE: it can get boring when you’re studying similar topics every day. Say, you scheduled to study Anatomy on the first week but gets bored on the third day. You might end up not following through. You can opt to put in some Human Development lessons in between Anatomy.)
2. Decide how much time each lesson on your master post would take. Be realistic. If you plan to study the whole Anatomy of the body from Head to Feet thoroughly (you want to familiarize yourself with the origin, insertion, and action and different ranges of motion), then this might take you at least 2 weeks. Know how thorough and in-depth you want it to be. It’s better to overestimate the time so you don’t get too pressured to finish it, especially if you unintentionally underestimated the time. I sometimes put on the number of pages I have to read per lesson.
3. Decide how much time you plan to study on each day. It’s vacation so I highly recommend that you start off with just 2-3 hours of studying then gradually increase it as you near the next school year. But again, this would depend on the bulk of your master post and your method of studying. If you have a lengthy master post then you have to increase the time you want to allot. If you are the type of learner who make summaries of whatever you’re reading, that would take up more time (than just reading) so you increase the time you want to allot.
4. Decide the time(s) of the day you want to study. Morning? Afternoon? Evening? Very early morning? You would also want to decide whether you’ll do bulk studying wherein you’ll study for 3 hours straight (with few rest breaks, of course) or distribute the 3 hours throughout the day (1 hour in the morning, afternoon, and evening?). In my opinion, this is helpful if you are traveling but still want to squeeze in some studying.
5. Study. Open the book and read. Write summaries. Watch helpful Youtube videos (yes, Miranda Sings, Anna Akana, and Lilly Singh videos are great but I’m talking about those related to your study master post). Listen to podcasts. Record yourself reading the topic and listen to it when you’re traveling.
Basically, that’s just it. But I added some more if you want to make your vacation even more productive.
5. Create a master post of ALL (non-school related) activities you want to do during vacation. I am 100% sure that I am not the only person on Earth who goes into vacation (after months of mental, physical, and emotional torture from school) thinking I will be very, very, VERY productive and end up staying at home hibernating, withering, evaporating. This is also helpful in planning your study sessions. You get to have an idea of how your days will be like (and your idea should include FUN in it). If you are like me who wants to paint, I make it a motivation. If I study for 4 hours, I can paint for the rest of the day.
If you plan to travel or visit museums or even volunteer, it’s better to set specific dates. Those dates can be study-free days.
If your list includes hobbies like reading books, watching movies/series, or painting, you may want to opt to decide how much time you want to do them and the time(s) of the day you want to do them. You can schedule them after each study session.
If you plan to workout, then this really needs a specific schedule.
6. Limit your time in social media. I know, it’s vacation. I know we have a lot of time -- time we can use wisely or time we can waste. But time is a very limited resource. If you use it for relaxation, then carry on. You need that. But there is a very fine line between relaxing and procrastinating (a.k.a. wasting time), so be mindful because you might cross that line.
DISCLAIMER: The things listed here are based on my experience alone. I woke up today with the realization that next school year will be my last school year so this vacation I’m having right now is my last vacation (as a student). I’m already halfway through it and my subconscious is panicking because I haven’t done much work. I was thinking (planning) on how to make the remaining days productive and came up with this.
It seems to be a rite of passage for many Italian teenagers to go on a school trip to London. At least that’s what it appears like when you live in London and come across groups of noisy Italian schoolkids making their way through the London Underground, together with their equally noisy teacher! Italian friends whom I have spoken to about these trips have told me about the fond memories they…
