How important did you find preparing for your course in advance through summer reading? I'm just wondering since other universities seem to send their students long lists of books to read which they also expect the students to read, but none of the emails I have received from St Andrews even mentions summer reading. I'm starting the History course, and did find a list of 'Suggested summer reading' from the St Andrews History Department website, but it didn't seem huge importance was placed on new students reading a lot on their module subjects prior to the start of the course.
I'm a bit confused as to the importance of summer reading... if one doesn't do any summer reading, does this mean one is lagging behind others once the course starts and hence won't do so well during the course? Or is summer reading simply meant to stimulate one's brain so it won't be as difficult to switch to studying full time? My summer job is quite demanding and I have lots of plans for my summer so I was wondering exactly how much time I should make for summer reading - whether I can just read those history books that interest me and maybe leaf through the rest of the list, or whether it is crucial that I read the whole list... What are your experiences, especially if you are doing History?