Spending my 2 week Christmas holiday abroad during year 13

So I need some advice and want honest opinions. I’m currently in year 12 and I do chem bio and psych and I want to study medicine. I want to visit my family in Bangladesh during the 2 week holidays this December 2021. I know that my mocks and my UCAS applications would have to be submitted around this time. I was thinking of doing my UKAT and BMAT as early as I can so I would have enough time to revise for my mocks and submit my ucas application.... to be honest I could start revising now (but that’s just unrealistic thinking). Do you think my learning would be affected if I go and spend my holiday time in bdesh and even do some revision there? I was also planning on missing the last week of school before the holidays start but of course I would catch up on everything I would miss on the last week of school the week before ( so I’m technically spending 3 weeks in Bangladesh) so should I go to Bangladesh or not??

Why so?

It's because the second of your A Level years is such a vital year when it comes to your future and taking any risk, even the smallest, is just not worth it. As you have said, there will be all sorts of significant things happening, Mocks, UCAS Applications, UKAT, BMAT. These things will dictate what happens to you in the future. You are applying for an extremely competitive field in which there are lots of outstanding applicants and you can't risk not being one of them; you would be heartbroken if you ended up with no offers for a place at Medical School.

I would worry that you might rush some of your work before Christmas so that you could get away and not do your best. Also, there might be work to do over Christmas; you say that you could do this in Bangladesh but it's so easy to imagine mixing holidays and school work; once you are there, you are likely to be asked to go to parties and so on and you may well go along and then get behind, leaving you stressed and worried at the start of the next term when you should really be moving towards the last lap of your A Levels.

I also think that the last year has shown how strange things in the world can go and how quickly they can move. You really don't want to be in a position where you are stuck in Bangladesh and late getting back for school.

Wait and see what other posters have to say, but I wouldn't risk a place at Medical School for a holiday; those places are too precious.

the ucas deadline for medicine is october 15, so you will have applied way before christmas. the only potential problem would then be mocks, depending on when your school does them. if you have your revision materials with you then i dont see why you wouldnt be able to revise in bangladesh, but if you feel like you wouldn’t revise there then perhaps its better to stay home

I start my mocks at the end of November

surely then you can go to bangladesh for christmas if your mocks are before that? you can just do light revision so you dont forget stuff

the other thing to consider is covid, if the situation is still bad in december then travel is a big no (but hopefully this isnt the case)