Vacation period

I will be starting postgraduate study for a taught masters this September, my course is made up of two 12 week semesters with month long breaks and then a summer term spent working on a dissertation. I won't have any exams.

Does anyone have experience of these Easter/Christmas breaks? Assuming i stay on top of my workload will i have these as (relatively) free periods?

I'm asking this as I have family abroad and do like to see them when possible, usually over christmas and a couple of weeks in easter.

Reply 1

gutenberg

14

From my experience with a Master's course, these periods when you don't have classes are not 'vacations' as such - often you'll have essays or other coursework to do during them, usually due once classes start back. Even if the deadlines are not immediately after the vacation is over, you'll probably find you want to spend at least some of the vacation working. Master's courses are quite intense, and I spent most of the teaching weeks just keeping up with the required reading and seminar work, and trying to squeeze in research for essays etc. But I found the vacations helpful for giving me some uninterrupted work time.

That's not to say you won't be able to take a few days off to see family, in fact I would encourage it as a way to stay balanced. But I wouldn't count on having the entire vacation periods completely free - but of course you could always do some work while you were visiting family :smile:

Reply 2

pgrd111

OP

Right thanks, I'm not quite sure what I'd be working on though as the modules themselves don't cross over semesters so unless they extend deadlines to the start of the next term I can't see what I would be working on. (I can see why this might happen over christmas as we were often given extentions over this period).

After the easter break though from what i can tell I no longer have taught classes only my dissertation to work on for an end of summer deadline so I'm struggling to see why i wouldn't be able to take a few weeks off this time period. (The nature of plane travel family means going less than a week or so is financially stupid). Assuming i complete all my deadlines from the spring semester that is...

Reply 3

gutenberg

14

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that courses might cross over semesters, I meant that sometimes deadlines for coursework are set for the beginning of the next semester, so that people who decided to write on topics that were covered towards the end of the semester aren't disadvantaged. This is by no means set in stone though, you'll have to wait and see once you start. So if your classes finish mid-December, you might have a deadline in mid-January, to hand in work for the course you did from September-December. Again, this will very much depend on your individual course, but I have seen this set-up. Of course, if you were organised and tried to do as much work as possible before the Christmas break, there'd be no reason you couldn't go & see family over Christmas itself.

Likewise with the Easter break, there's no reason you couldn't take some time off. I would just counsel that you build that time away into your schedule, so you don't end up rushing at the end. I know having from Easter until the end of the summer seems like ages for a dissertation, but don't underestimate the amount the work! :smile:

You may also have coursework deadlines, in a similar way to the December-January setup I described above - after your classes finish in say March, you may have deadlines after the Easter break.

Reply 4

pgrd111

OP

As its the same university I went to for undergradaute I'm hoping that it won't be the case for the Easter period, I had deadlines set for the start of January almost every year but it never occurred over the Easter period, so hopefully that will remain the same in my postgraduate year... I was one of the people who didn't give myself much time for the Undergrad dissertation I won't make that mistake this time round ahah.

I think I'm willing to stay in the UK over xmas, but I'm thinking that because I won't have exams or contact hours after spring, a smart thing to do would be just to work really hard through spring and if i do have extended deadlines just get them in as soon as possible and then go away for a couple of weeks. (After all i deserve at least a few weeks off in a full year course :tongue:

).

Regardless I think at the end of the day its up to how well I want to do and how much work I'm willing to put in during term time, If i concentrate hard enough I'll be able to reap a more relaxed time off :smile:

. Something to motivate me at least!

Reply 5

gutenberg

14

Good luck! I went home at Christmas, and for a week or so around Easter during my Master's, and was absolutely fine. As long as you've accounted for the time somewhere else (such as working your butt off during the spring semester), there's no reason you can't take some time. And with so much being available online now, even if you did go away for a bit, you can so easily access articles, ebooks etc. if you felt you needed to do some work while there :smile:

Vacation period

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