is "burning out" if you work too hard on the holidays a myth?

[EvangelionZeta]

Ok.  First of all, in relation to on-topic stuff:

1. Speaking as both a tutor and as a recent graduate who had lots of ridiculously nerdy friends, I've seen lots of students who did ridiculous amounts of work in the holidays, who managed fine with it across the whole year.  I would say that this helped them (significantly, in certain cases).

2. By the same token, I have seen lots of students (myself included) who did nothing or next-to-nothing in the holidays, who still did well.  Actually, the irony is that the only subject I tried to do any in-advance work in (Specialist Mathematics) ended up being my worst subject; the working ahead did help me, I think, but I just wasn't interested enough in what was being taught to keep up after the holiday period.

3. What TrueTears and a lot of other people have said rings true: it's much more viable for most people to 'study' during holidays if it's something of genuine interest.  I'm currently doing some language study of my own at the moment, and I've often found myself staying up until 3am (eg. tonight) just because I enjoy it for its own sake.  I have a sinking suspicion I would have done a lot of 'study' for literature at this point in time (mostly by reading up on the texts I was doing in year 12), but it would have been out of interest more than anything else; the fact that I can't even remember if I did this or not is probably testament to the extent which I didn't think of it as studying (and yet it would have helped me down the track).

tl;dr - basically, do what suits you, and know that many approaches can work for many different sorts of people.  Studying is also much more effective (and much more fun!) if it's something you're genuinely interested in.

Regarding all the stuff about 'Asians' or whatever, just drop it, guys.  It's a discussion for a completely different topic.  Cool?  Cool.

[Special At Specialist]

I agree with Zeta but I would also like to add to that:

It's more important to catch up than it is to get ahead. If you struggled with year 11 work, then it would be beneficial to learn the year 11 work before you start year 12.
If you're writing essays at a year 10 standard, then the holidays would be a good chance to catch up.

It's not that important to get ahead in your subjects, but it definitely is important to catch up. The last thing you want to do is enter year 12 and already be struggling with the work in the first 2 weeks. If you're up to date in every subject, then getting ahead will help you, though it isn't necessary to do well. Keeping up to date is necessary to do well, though.

[pi]

It's more important to catch up than it is to get ahead. If you struggled with year 11 work, then it would be beneficial to learn the year 11 work before you start year 12.

Whilst I agree with this, be smart about it. Don't bother catching-up on stuff that isn't going to be one the course next year (eg. permutations in methods, sequences and series in GMA, history in chem, flight in physics, etc.).

Just be smart about it

[iloveschool]

i didnt do any revision at all during the holidays

[louise_2012]

I can't help but get a bit annoyed when people say things like doing X amount of studying is mandatory to getting good marks, or that you HAVE to get ___ textbook/study guide/uni textbook if you want to get above X study score, or if you do above X amount of practice exams you will get a worse mark. If those things were correct than someone would have worked out a magic formula for getting a perfect ATAR and would have sold it to thousands of desperate VCE students and made copious amounts of money by now. Every person is different and not one specific type/length of studying is going to work for everyone. And those extra study guides and uni textbooks are far from essential. They may help but I've noticed that often people begin to imply that it's impossible to 'succeed' without them, which I don't feel is right.

That mini rant aside,
I haven't actually seen anyone "burn out" as such in the holidays. And for some people, 6 hours a day may be what works for them and for others 6 hours that holidays may be all they need. But I can't help but think that the bigger risk isn't burning out during the holidays, but not being rested enough when you start the term. There are a few people I know that (at the moment at least) seem to have forgotten that these holidays are for relaxing too. Getting ahead is all good and well but if that prevents you from relaxing and 'recharging' I can't help but think that the benefits are outweighed by the negatives in that situation. I do admit that there would be some people out there who can still study those long hours and also relax during the holidays, but I can't help but feel that the more studying one does in the summer holidays, the higher the risk is of them not being rested enough to be able to tackle year 12 when it truly arrives.

[synchronise3]

well said louise_2012

[Planck's constant]

This will not win me the AN popularity contest, but here goes ..

1. "Burning out" if you work too hard on the holidays IS a myth
2. If you have not started working hard already, you are a month too late
3. VCE is a COMPETITION, much like the AFL is a competition, and thats why they have pre-season training.




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[thushan]

1. Definitely do not agree with you there, I've burnt out so often it was crazy, I was constantly on 'low fuel'
2. Yes, you're right in essentials, but it's not the right attitude to take because although you are a month too late yes, you have 12 months ahead of you
3. Yes VCE is a competition. Pre-season training is good but so long as you dont sabotage anyone else

[stonecold]

It is up to the individual to prepare as much as they want during summer.  Everyone is different, so you have to find what works for you.  Also note that at the higher end of scores, hard work does not necessarily correlate to better marks.  I spent most of my summer before VCE doing Methods.  I completed over half of the textbook, and yet it was my worst score for the year.  I think I read somewhere in the thread that if you've worked during the summer, then you may slack off a little during the year.  There may be some amount of truth to this.  Although then again, I hardly ever remember doing any work in class for all of my subjects...

To contrast studying over summer, for Biology and EngLang I did absolutely nothing before starting, and they worked out quite well.  At the end of the day, you can know the course inside out, but come exam day it is not going to help you if your exam technique is not well planned and efficient.

With regard to burning out, I think it can and does happen to all of us to an extent...but, I don't really think it should affect anyone too much.  Even if it does, I think the importance and high stakes of it all should be enough to get you through.  Sorry for the boring old cliche, but I guess to an extent when the going gets tough, the tough get going. :p

All you have to do is keep thinking of that final date when freedom will be yours, and go like hell until then.  After that, you can rest all you want.  To ease off beforehand would just be a waste.

That having been said, I think you really need to be fresh for exams, so definitely no intense study or late nights during an exam period.  Try and knock off all of the hard stuff at least a week before your exam. 

[Planck's constant]

I understand where you're coming from, thushan, and I could say all the right things about balance etc ... but, lets give them a reality check first and we can negotiate later

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[Planck's constant]

Try and knock off all of the hard stuff at least a week before your exam. 

... because you will need the last week for English immersion

Sorry mate, I cant help myself sometimes

[thushan]

Haha okay fine your second and third points are reality, but it's really the first point that I dont agree with. I can see what you're implying, and I'm not saying what I say in the name of political correctness or whatever. I'm going on personal experience actually. Anyhow, maybe some people (like yourself! ) are resistant to burning out, but the rest of us aren't. So it is not really a good idea to say that it definitively is a myth - because then some people will interpret it as didactic and proceed to unknowingly burn themselves out. It's good to tell it like it is, but tell it like it is so that it actually is as is and cannot be overinterpreted

[paulsterio]

This will not win me the AN popularity contest, but here goes ..

1. "Burning out" if you work too hard on the holidays IS a myth
2. If you have not started working hard already, you are a month too late
3. VCE is a COMPETITION, much like the AFL is a competition, and thats why they have pre-season training.

1. To a certain extent I agree with you, personally, I have never experienced "burn out" and I don't even know what it really feels like, but I've seen it happen to others, so it's not a myth, but rather it's dependent on whether people can handle it and persevere through it. I used to think the same thing as you, but after seeing it happen to people I know, I now know that it's not a myth

2. A month doesn't account for much to be honest and to be frank, you're going to "win back" so much more than a month if you work efficiently throughout the whole year

3. Again, I used to hold that viewpoint and I worked ahead during the holidays too, but I've seen others who went on holidays...etc. and still do better than me, it's not an issue of the AMOUNT of work you put in, but the QUALITY. I know people who studied many more hours than I did in the lead up to exams, but they didn't work efficiently. It's not always about the AMOUNT.

[Special At Specialist]

This will not win me the AN popularity contest, but here goes ..

1. "Burning out" if you work too hard on the holidays IS a myth
2. If you have not started working hard already, you are a month too late
3. VCE is a COMPETITION, much like the AFL is a competition, and thats why they have pre-season training.




.

I don't agree with you much, but damn it you're so right on that one.
To all the people bragging about their 99 atar scores without working at all on the summer holidays:
Sure you can do well without working through the summer holidays. But you would do even BETTER if you did work throughout the summer holidays.
It's like trying to compare a professional athlete who trained for 8 months vs a professional athlete who trained for 10. Who is going to score the fastest time?

[paulsterio]

It's not a matter of how LONG you trained for, but how efficiently and effectively