The Student Room Group

How intense are the breaks in between the terms?

Hey, would just like to ask a quick question after I received the good news today :smile:

I know the 8 week terms are going to be intense, and I'm ready for that however just wondering how intense the breaks in between will be (especially from a medic's perspective)?

Thanks TSR
Reply 1
The breaks aren't really that intense. You just need to make sure you're consistently doing about 4 or 5 hours revision a day.

However, if you spend a few weeks doing nothing, you'll end up having to cram like crazy. In that situation it is intense.
Reply 2
Original post by 3nTr0pY
The breaks aren't really that intense. You just need to make sure you're consistently doing about 4 or 5 hours revision a day.

However, if you spend a few weeks doing nothing, you'll end up having to cram like crazy. In that situation it is intense.


Thank you :smile: At least it's less than a school day's worth of work :P
Reply 3
Original post by 3nTr0pY
The breaks aren't really that intense. You just need to make sure you're consistently doing about 4 or 5 hours revision a day.

However, if you spend a few weeks doing nothing, you'll end up having to cram like crazy. In that situation it is intense.


That sounds intense for a holiday to me!
Reply 4
I'm a first year NatSci (similar number of contact hours in term time), and my director of studies told me I should be doing a couple of past papers for each of my four subjects, reading through all my notes from term time, and making sure I know and understand everything, and redoing every piece of supervision work I've been set this term. I also have to do a computing project, for maths and a formal report for physics. I've got mock exams when term starts, but I've not done all this. I don't think many people work as hard as they're told to over this holiday certainly. I can't tell you whether it was a suitable amount of work or not, because I've not done my exams yet. However, I would say don't work too hard - you do so much in term, that you've got to give yourself time to recover.

Also my director of studies is evil... he told me if I had more than an hour a day in term time when I wasn't working, then I wasn't working hard enough. So what I've been told to do probably isn't normal.

Edit: I reckon I'll have averaged 3 hours work a day...but most of it will have been crammed into the last week.
Reply 5
It largely depends on your subject. :smile: I do MML, so I haven't had a massive workload compared with others. I've had to read the texts I haven't already read, complete some grammar exercises and learn some vocabulary. I've managed to squeeze in a bit of revision of old texts.
Roughly a couple of hours every day, tops. Some days I've done no work, but that's because it's the holidays. You're meant to let off a little steam. Work is hectic enough during term time, and you need to make the most of being at home :biggrin:
Reply 6
Original post by 3nTr0pY
The breaks aren't really that intense. You just need to make sure you're consistently doing about 4 or 5 hours revision a day.

However, if you spend a few weeks doing nothing, you'll end up having to cram like crazy. In that situation it is intense.


I survived on far less than this (as a medic). It's also worth saying that you only really need to do any work at all in the Christmas and Easter holidays, there is very little work for medics over the long summer vacation.
Reply 7
Original post by SoundDude
Hey, would just like to ask a quick question after I received the good news today :smile:

I know the 8 week terms are going to be intense, and I'm ready for that however just wondering how intense the breaks in between will be (especially from a medic's perspective)?

Thanks TSR


Medic from the other side here... It varies a lot. Do you have like mock exams when you get back like us? That tends to send a lot of the Oxford lot into a frenzy, but in all honestly i don't think i ever opened a book during the holidays and i passed just fine. However, i both have never really worked in my life and have no problem with scraping a pass (or even failing - they're only mocks) so like i said depends on the individual.
Reply 8
Original post by Helenia
I survived on far less than this (as a medic). It's also worth saying that you only really need to do any work at all in the Christmas and Easter holidays, there is very little work for medics over the long summer vacation.

Yeah, I'm sure you can if you're organised during term.

My problem tended to be that I got far behind during term...so the first couple of revision weeks were actually just catch up. And yes, I'm only talking about non-summer holidays. During summer you need to do bugger all (except work experience).

Kalliope
That sounds intense for a holiday to me!

Ahhh, sweet innocent child, when you enter the real world they'll eat you alive! :wink:



...but yeah, honestly, I didn't actually do that much work in reality. Probably averaged 3 hours or so. But if you want great marks 4 or 5 hours is what you should be aiming for I reckon.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 9
I would say that it is very important to do quite a bit over the holidays. We all know how hectic term-time can actually be, so looking over your notes in your own time gives you the best opportunity to cement the lecture material into your long-term memory. Saying that, don't forget to take breaks when necessary; you really don't want to burn out before you've even started Lent term.
Original post by 3nTr0pY
The breaks aren't really that intense. You just need to make sure you're consistently doing about 4 or 5 hours revision a day.

However, if you spend a few weeks doing nothing, you'll end up having to cram like crazy. In that situation it is intense.


Original post by Kalliope
That sounds intense for a holiday to me!


4-5 a day sounds crazy. Way more than necessary. English undergrad here. This Christmas vac I was told to read various bits and pieces from the period we're doing next term (long 18th cent) and also to think about what broad authors/texts/topics we will be ready to write about in the mock exam we're doing on the 14th of Jan in last term's work (Renaissance). None of us in my college have really done either of those things to any great extent; I've been reading some Alexander Pope, and I re-read last term's essays and a few of the texts I think I'll write about, and that's it. I really doubt it'll do us much harm. I certainly didn't do anything like the reading they asked us to do for the first term and we all ended up doing pretty well in that term's work.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 11
Original post by TritonSails
4-5 a day sounds crazy. Way more than necessary. English undergrad here. This Christmas vac I was told to read various bits and pieces from the period we're doing next term (long 18th cent) and also to think about what broad authors/texts/topics we will be ready to write about in the mock exam we're doing on the 14th of Jan in last term's work (Renaissance). None of us in my college have really done either of those things to any great extent; I've been reading some Alexander Pope, and I re-read last term's essays and a few of the texts I think I'll write about, and that's it. I really doubt it'll do us much harm. I certainly didn't do anything like the reading they asked us to do for the first term and we all ended up doing pretty well in that term's work.


Thank you :smile: I've got an offer for English and that's reassured me a bit - much more along the lines of what I'd heard before. I guess reading lists makes English etc a bit different anyway - I wasn't counting reading as working, really!
Reply 12
Original post by 3nTr0pY
Yeah, I'm sure you can if you're organised during term.

My problem tended to be that I got far behind during term...so the first couple of revision weeks were actually just catch up. And yes, I'm only talking about non-summer holidays. During summer you need to do bugger all (except work experience).


Engineer, by any chance? :tongue:

4-5 hours a day is a bit excessive but if you've fallen behind it's understandable :smile: I've only really done work finishing a couple of examples papers off (4 hours total work), a report (1 hour, complete gibberish) and revision in the last couple of weeks (~3 hours a day).
Reply 13
Original post by wibletg
Engineer, by any chance? :tongue:

4-5 hours a day is a bit excessive but if you've fallen behind it's understandable :smile: I've only really done work finishing a couple of examples papers off (4 hours total work), a report (1 hour, complete gibberish) and revision in the last couple of weeks (~3 hours a day).

Physicist. Should be able to tell by my signature :wink:
I have never worked out of term.
Reply 15
Original post by 3nTr0pY
Physicist. Should be able to tell by my signature :wink:


Didn't know natscis did work experience? :tongue: I only thought it was the poor tortured souls only?
Reply 16
Original post by wibletg
Didn't know natscis did work experience? :tongue: I only thought it was the poor tortured souls only?

Some of us Nat Scis want jobs after graduating. Crazy thought I know. :tongue:


And yes, apparently no one pays you (much) for being good at physics. Which is a bit of a bummer.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 17
Original post by 3nTr0pY
Some of us Nat Scis want jobs after graduating. Crazy thought I know. :tongue:


And yes, apparently no one pays you (much) for being good at physics. Which is a bit of a bummer.


Hey, I wouldn't say that, I've been offered a £18,000 pro rata placement in the summer (8 weeks, so £2,800) plus a £2,000 a year sponsorship if they like me enough :tongue:
Reply 18
Original post by Kalliope
That sounds intense for a holiday to me!


Me too O.O At the moment I don't even study that much during term-time...
Glad to hear that it's not the same for everyone though.
Reply 19
It really does depend. Personally I did next to nothing in the Christmas holiday last year (maybe a week of sheer panic right at the end) and did fine in my mocks. I then did very little over the Easter break (mostly working on supervisions for the start of easter term, as opposed to actual revision) and did just fine in my exams. Some of the responses here are a bit excessive, in my opinion!

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