A More Effective Way to Use Holiday Breaks

Got plenty of free time on your hands before school comes back in session? Tired of just sitting around the house with nothing to do? There are a few things that you could be doing, even though you might not be thinking about them right now.

Holiday Breaks

One thing that you need to think about is getting ahead on your classes. These days, college is becoming more and more competitive. We hate to break it to you, but just showing up to class isn’t enough anymore. If you really want everyone to take notice of you, you’re going to have to make sure that you’re doing something that actually gets you noticed. Just sitting in the class without talking doesn’t get anyone to notice you. When it’s time to have recommendations written, no one has anything to say about you. This makes it a lot harder to get internships in the future. Without an internship, it’s very difficult for you to get a job that’s going to pay well. Starting from the bottom is hard even with an internship, but it’s even harder when you have to prove yourself from scratch.

Getting an internship is great because everyone gets a chance to know you. Of course, you don’t want to ruin the internship experience by expecting to be the boss on your first day, but that’s a story for another day. Let’s focus on the matter at hand: how to get ahead in your spare time, without taking away your time to rest and recharge.

Massively Open Online Courses

First and foremost, reading doesn’t have to necessarily mean “reading”. You can find plenty of YouTube videos on just about any and every topic you could think of. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t want to study in your textbook. Taking time to watch video changes the way you take in information. If you constantly fall asleep in class, you might not fall asleep to a lecture form a different person. You can also do interactive mini classes where people discuss the class as it happens. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are great for this purpose. They’re usually free and you can join or leave at any time. No one is going to check to make sure you’ve done your homework, but it never hurts to work on things so that you can speak intelligently with the rest of the class. Once things return to normal at school, you can feel a bit more confident that you took in some new information. If you can match your class online to the class you’re taking at the university, then that’s even better.

Another thing to try is to get out and study in real time with people that you haven’t worked with before. A fresh flow of ideas is the main theme in this guide. We tend to get bored when we get tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Can anyone really say that they love repeating things over and over? It’s best to hang out with new people occasionally anyway. Our social network is often how we get referred to jobs and opportunities. Having a new person trust you enough to refer you to someone that they know is a huge step towards getting the dream job that you’ve probably given plenty of thought and consideration to already.

It’s important to remember to be balanced in all of your pursuits. We aren’t telling you to study 18 hours a day for the entire break. But if you can squeeze in an extra hour of looking at your notes in a time where you’re not rushed every single moment, you’ll feel better when you return to class.

If you’re the sort that takes notes of where you’re struggling, getting outside help when you have down time is good. It sets the tone for a no pressure environment, which is the whole point. Be sure that you don’t pressure yourself to achieve a certain goal here. We just want to encourage more learning, rather than just curling up in front of the television. Good luck with your studies!

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