Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Always doing college work

Hello everyone,

I’m just wondering, what are the effects on health when a person is always working, ie doing college work.

So a little back story. I’m currently in year 12 going into year 13. Iv achieved relatively high grades around A* in economics at AS level for nearly every test. A/A* in AS level maths and A/A* in physics.

My education journey to achieve the best in the class started in yr 11. I was underperforming/getting U’s in all of my subjects for the last few years before year 11. Having gotten moved down from top set to bottom sets over these yrs. Suddenly, at the start of yr 11 I started doing hours and hours of studying everyday to the point that I couldn’t do anymore and it was time for sleep. I did this until yr 11 exams. I achieved fairly high grades.

In the AS year I worked around from a usual starting day of 8am to about 5pm. I’d then go gym, come back home and do about 1 more hour then rest and sleep. I then had a large period off where I didn’t do that much work because I was considerable ahead of everyone else and knew everything in my subjects. When I say I didn’t do that much I probably did about 3/4 hours extra.

I took some time off doing extra work when lockdown started as all of my set work was recap. Around June, I had a sudden burst of motivation and I started studying all day, to the point where doing college work has gotten quite fun. I wouldn’t say fun actually it’s just became the norm to me to study all day. I think currently in my holidays I have done 8 hours of studying most days and I don’t feel any burnout, only frustration when I don’t get a piece of work done that I planned to do. Iv also lost interest in going out, like I’d rather study so that’s abit of a conflict. Like don’t get me wrong, I have fun going out but in the back of my mind I know I’d rather be studying.

Is this a bad thing and will this have any implications on my health? To keep myself from burning out or losing interest I set myself clear goals of what I want to achieve in my life and out of studying. I also decide to take some ‘holidays’ where I’d spend a few days doing around 1 hour of memorising by content based subjects then I’d go out with friends.

Any thoughts people?

Reply 1

killak434

Also just to add, I’m aiming to get into Cambridge for economics. I think a key reason why I work all day is I’m scared to fail as I like achieving the best of the best when I do things. The reason I’m scared to fail or considering failing is because I haven’t achieved the typical high gcse grades that most people who work like I do get. I got 3 8’s, 2 7’s, 2 6’s, 1 5. I know gcse grades don’t matter in terms of Cambridge to an extent but it’s just something that ‘puts me below others’ and is more of an ego thing for me.

Reply 2

Kerasquioxian

Well done! You are motivated and hard working!

Reply 3

Gerrard88

With everything there should be a balance, too much or too little of something is typically not good. Doing too much could possibly lead you to burn out. Also, studies have shown that our brain needs constant breaks in order to function at its peak. Doing too much can lead to not being efficient, and not worth the time. Dyu

Reply 4

killak434

Thank you! It means a lot haha. True, I find it hard making the balance. How long would u say as a rough estimate for each session I do in the day before I take a break and how long should I break for as an estimate. I’m going to try and cut off studying at around 8pm but I do find it hard to get all my stuff done as I train in the gym for 2 hours as a mental break.

Reply 5

Gerrard88

Original post by killak434

When lockdown started, I would do about 6-8 hours. We were set 3 lessons from school each day, so I would do them for an hour (however they’d usually take like 2hrs). Then I would do 2 more extra sessions, an hour each. I’d spread it over the whole day,
9am- 1st session
12pm- 2nd session
3pm- 3rd session
6pm- 4th session
8pm- 5th session

In the sessions what you could do is do the 25:5 rule. This is when you study for 25mins then take a 5 min break. Or do the 50:10 rule. I found this work doing the 50:10 works better as 25 mins is too short and usually by 25mins you’ll have gained a bit of momentum.

Reply 6

Flk10

Tbh it sounds like you have a great work ethic and in sure you’ll do well in your exams with all that hard work!

Personally, I don’t really believe in burnout- it can often just be an excuse to be lazy. It is important though that you don’t tire yourself out too much as you then won’t be able to focus properly on your work.

You might find it beneficial to set yourself a target for how much work you want to do on a specific day and then stop at that as you have earned your rest time.