Finding Study-Life Balance
In addition to opening presents and watching Netflix, we recommend 2-3 hours of study and learning a day over the holiday. This can be divided into smaller sessions to help make things easier and more palatable, depending on your learning style.
One hour, for instance, can be used to review your previous learning and write fresh summaries: this will save you both time and worry after the break when others have forgotten everything they did before the holiday.
Another hour can be spent on learning something new. This can take the form of reading new books and watching documentaries or even indulging in something cultural like watching a play or attending a classical concert. To maximise these activities try composing a newspaper style book or music review. This will help to consolidate your learning and give you the chance to vent about having to do work over the holiday!
Online Apps and Games
There are countless games and apps that you can use to make learning easier and more enjoyable.
For the classic quiz-like approach, we recommend using Quizlet, which enables you to create various kinds of flashcards. For GCSE subjects we recommend the EdPlace revision app, which boasts thousands of interactive tutorial worksheets, assessments and revision practice papers. For much younger learners there are hundreds of unique games and apps available, such as Play and Learn Engineering, which allows you to build robots and explore things like gravity.
If you want extra suggestions for something more tailored to your own age and subject, get in touch and Think Tutors can direct you to something specialised.
The Importance of Practice
People say that practice makes perfect for a reason. Human cognition is hardwired to recognise patterns and prioritise remembered activities, so the more you do something the more natural and effortless it becomes. This is as true of learning a musical instrument as it is a foreign language or memorising physics formulas. As with so much in life, you get out what your put in. Take the time over the holiday to practice whatever needs practicing and it will pay massive dividends in the new year. We recommend diving your practice into 20-minute sessions, because developing new skills requires heightened attention span and mental effort. By focussing your efforts into multiple shorter sessions with small breaks in between you’ll be able to optimise your effectiveness and efficiency.
How Can Think Tutors Help?
One of the major challenges to effective studying and learning over the holiday is the relative lack of structure and support compared to being in school. Think Tutors can help with that.
Our academic mentors and professional tutors are available over the holiday to help with everything from supervised sessions to creating learning schedules. We can provide assistance and accountability to help students and families achieve their learning goals.
At Think Tutors, we provide private tuition, mentoring and education advisory from Younger Years, ISEB Pre-Test, to A-Level and IB. Contact us if you would like to find out more.