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

[b^3]

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?

Whoever trianed more efficiently to offsect and overcome the time difference, without over-training and doing serious damage and "burning out". Seriously burning out happens, you should be doing something on the holidays but not the bloody entire course! As I've said before, pace yourself, it's a long year, VCE is a marathon not a sprint.

EDIT: DAMIT PAUL! you beat me by 0 seconds! thats what it said 0 seconds!
and Also 1400th post.

[Special At Specialist]

Why can't you work harder AND smarter?

[Planck's constant]

 it's not an issue of the AMOUNT of work you put in, but the QUALITY.

Since when have QUALITY and QUANTITY become mutually exclusive ?
Lets get real people. There are people out there who have been grinding with Dr He since they were 6 months old.
Thats what your COMPETITION is doing.
And if your competition goes into battle with nuclear weapons and you want to do battle with a popgun ... feel free, I'm not stopping you.

[Greatness]

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?

The one who is mentally stronger. Just because youve trained for longer than your opponent it doesnt mean you will win.

[Special At Specialist]

The one who is mentally stronger. Just because youve trained for longer than your opponent it doesnt mean you will win.

Training longer doesn't guarantee success, though it certainly increases your chances.

[taiga]

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?

What a terrible analogy :S That's not clear cut at all, I wouldn't bet on that race.


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Work smarter not harder

[Special At Specialist]

Work smarter not harder

Work smarter AND harder.

[Camo]

Planning to do an entire course is not the best way to approach a subject, it needs to be split into parts that are regularly revised in order to consolidate information. If no consolidation has occurred then your not really learning are you?

Those that are smart won't just think to themselves, 'I can do specialist in a month,' concepts need to be regularly advised, practice in order for learning to occur.

Work smarter not harder

Work smarter AND harder.

Doesn't necessarily mean that you will improve. Year 12 needs to be planned effectively, many will tell you that.

If your not working smarter your not working harder.

[Greatness]

The one who is mentally stronger. Just because youve trained for longer than your opponent it doesnt mean you will win.

Training longer doesn't guarantee success, though it certainly increases your chances.

Same goes for VCE, altho studying through summer may pay dividends it isnt guarenteed. Burn out is always a possiblity.

I agree that you should work smart and hard, but there is a limit on that you have to use common sense.

[Special At Specialist]

Planning to do an entire course is not the best way to approach a subject, it needs to be split into parts that are regularly revised in order to consolidate information. If no consolidation has occurred then your not really learning are you?

Those that are smart won't just think to themselves, 'I can do specialist in a month,' concepts need to be regularly advised, practice in order for learning to occur.

That's what practice exams are for.
If you finish the whole course in the summer holidays, then you can regularly do practice exams to consolidate the information. If you aim to do 2 a week from the start of term 1 to the end of term 4, then you should be well prepared for the exam.
Plus, just attending class and paying attention should also help in the consolidation process.

[JellyDonut]

Sleep and food is for the weak. What I used to do is that I hooked myself up to two IV drips. One to feed me vitamins and caffeine, the other to keep me nourished with those liquid meals they feed to patients in coma.

[Camo]

Planning to do an entire course is not the best way to approach a subject, it needs to be split into parts that are regularly revised in order to consolidate information. If no consolidation has occurred then your not really learning are you?

Those that are smart won't just think to themselves, 'I can do specialist in a month,' concepts need to be regularly advised, practice in order for learning to occur.

That's what practice exams are for.
If you finish the whole course in the summer holidays, then you can regularly do practice exams to consolidate the information. If you aim to do 2 a week from the start of term 1 to the end of term 4, then you should be well prepared for the exam.
Plus, just attending class and paying attention should also help in the consolidation process.

What I'm saying is that you have to plan how your going to do the course. Its all fine and dandy to say I want to do the course in the holidays but another think to actually do it.

Without planning, I don't see you going very far in Spesh.

[paulsterio]

Good points by Camo, Special At Specialist, stop being so ignorant, the truth is, you can do what you want, but there are others here who have had experience with what you're planning to do, and we are honest when we say that what you're planning to do will not work, it's not about practice exams, you can do a million practice exams and still do worse than someone who did 5, believe me, I made that mistake myself, practice exams cover only 95% of the course, it's the remaining 5% that you will miss when doing practice exams and when you are rushing through the course during summer

[Camo]

Good points by Camo, Special At Specialist, stop being so ignorant, the truth is, you can do what you want, but there are others here who have had experience with what you're planning to do, and we are honest when we say that what you're planning to do will not work, it's not about practice exams, you can do a million practice exams and still do worse than someone who did 5, believe me, I made that mistake myself, practice exams cover only 95% of the course, it's the remaining 5% that you will miss when doing practice exams and when you are rushing through the course during summer

Thanks Paul, without course content your practice exams will be useless, and aren't they most beneficial towards the exam and not throughout the year? If your really eager do the course in the holidays, then a few practice exams, then redo course, and so forth.

[louise_2012]

Planning to do an entire course is not the best way to approach a subject, it needs to be split into parts that are regularly revised in order to consolidate information. If no consolidation has occurred then your not really learning are you?

Those that are smart won't just think to themselves, 'I can do specialist in a month,' concepts need to be regularly advised, practice in order for learning to occur.

That's what practice exams are for.
If you finish the whole course in the summer holidays, then you can regularly do practice exams to consolidate the information. If you aim to do 2 a week from the start of term 1 to the end of term 4, then you should be well prepared for the exam.
Plus, just attending class and paying attention should also help in the consolidation process.

That may be great and would really be 'ideal' but you haven't factored in many things, such as boredom arising from no new content during the year, losing motivation due to this, doing exams so much throughout the year that you don't take the real ones that seriously, physically running out of revision materials in certain subjects; just to mention a few. When these situations arise, the 'hard' work in the holidays doesn't end up being 'smart'. You can aim to avoid those things but the reality is that they are real risks that may not be able to be avoided when following that plan of study. Taking that into account, in a lot of instances the copious amount of work in the holidays may not end up smart at all. It may be smart for some people and they may be able to avoid all the aforementioned risks, but in any instance the risks should still be considered for their possibility all the same when deciding how to go about studying in the Summer. Just something to think about.