Making the most of your summer holidays

As you reach higher year levels at school, your summer holidays get longer and longer. The summer between year 12 and university (for those going straight into further study) can be a long and glorious time with no commitments and lots of independence. One of the most important things to do during the holidays is relax – the break is designed to prepare you for another year of study, so you want to go back to school (or university) feeling refreshed. But there is also a whole lot more you can do during your holidays. Here are some ideas.

Work

The summer holidays are a fantastic time to earn some extra money. This could mean you save up enough to buy something special or go on a trip, or it could mean you can work less hours and focus on your study during term-time. A lot of the retail industry hire Christmas casuals over the summer period, so you could get a job that lasts just for the holidays if that suits you.

Volunteer

Now that you’ve got a bit of extra time up your sleeve, it’s a great idea to volunteer over the holidays. There are a lot of people doing it tough at this time of year, so find an organisation that speaks to your interests and find out how you can contribute your time. Volunteering also looks great on a resume!

Do your holiday homework

I know you will have been told this a million times already, but try to knock over your holiday homework earlier rather than later. You’ll regret leaving it all to the last minute, and you’ll feel even freer if you get it done at the beginning of the holidays.

Find a new hobby

You have time now to finish that project you started last summer but never completed. You could also find time for something new that you don’t usually do when you’re busier. You could read some more books or take up a new sport with a friend.

Catch up with a friend or family member

Now is a great time to catch up with someone you usually don’t make time for. You could message that friend who attends a different school who you don’t see much during the term. You could ring your grandma for a chat. You could organise to go out for dinner with your cousins. Reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in a while!

Relax

Remember to relax. That’s what you’re on holidays for. Just remember to intersperse your total relaxation with something like working or catching up a friend so that you don’t become bored by the end of the break!

Staying motivated for your last exam

When you have a number of exams spread across a couple of weeks it can be easy to get burnt out and stop studying for the last one or two. You might feel like you’ve put all your energy into your first two exams, and you don’t have enough energy to keep up your studying stamina for another week.

However, it’s quite possible your strongest subject is coincidentally at the end of the exam period. Remember that almost all your subjects are weighted equally, so all the exams are important!

Here are some tips on how you can stop yourself getting burnt out and tired during the exam period.

Make a schedule

Write up a schedule of what you want to get done every day between now and the end of exams. Be specific about what you’re going to get done, for example, “Chemistry: 2014 VCAA exam”. Make your study goals realistic, but also make sure you’re working hard. This is the last time you’ll have to study for these subjects, so put in your best effort!

In terms of making your goals realistic, don’t convince yourself that you’re going to get up at 7 am and study consistently until 8 pm, with one break for lunch. You might be able to do this for one day, but it’s not a sustainable study method.

Set yourself up for productive study

When it gets close to exams, it might feel like a good idea to go all out and start cramming and studying crazy hours. However, if you have a long exam period, this is unsustainable. When you’re studying, you need to make sure you’re taking regular short breaks, like going for a 15-minute walk, so that you can keep working.

Keep your phone away from your study area, and only check it during your breaks. This is especially true if some of your friends have finished their exams and have forgotten that you’re still in exam mode.

When you relax, really relax

It can be easy to get caught up in total exam mode and forget how to relax. However, when you’re taking a break from study, do your best to completely switch off from it. Schedule in relaxation times, which could be something like watching your favourite TV show, going for a swim, or catching up with a friend (and promising not to talk about study!)

If you have a really long break before your last exam and you’re feeling prepared, it might even be a good idea to schedule a whole day off. You could get out of the house and take yourself out for lunch or to see a movie, or stay home and chill out all day. This is a good way to recharge the batteries and feel refreshed before diving back in to studying.

Look after yourself

You’ll get burnt out even more quickly if you’re not looking after your body. Make sure you’re getting lots of sleep and eating regular meals.

It’s also a good idea to have some of your study breaks involve exercise. Exercise gives you endorphins, which will help you feel good, and it will also mean you sleep better. If you’re sitting down at a desk all day, sometimes your body isn’t tired enough to sleep well at night. Exercise can help with this problem.

The importance of resilience

Resilience is an important skill to have, but it’s one a lot of us struggle with. When something bad happens, it can feel insurmountable and prevent us concentrating on anything else for the rest of the day.

There are a number of issues you might face during school that will test your resilience, such as getting a bad mark, fighting with a friend or family member, feeling like you’re not getting anywhere in your studies, or having no idea what you want to do when you finish school.

Resilience helps us overcome the more difficult times in our life and helps us work through our problems in a reasonable way. We won’t all be successful all the time, so it’s important to be able to deal with the big or small things life throws at us.

You might say something like “I’m just not very good at dealing with my problems” or “I often overreact”. But resilience is not only based on our personality and characteristics. It’s also influenced by contextual factors, such as having a great support network and stable accommodation and finances. While you might not have the power to change these factors, there are some things you can do to improve your resilience.

Improving your resilience is not a quick fix – it requires long-term effort, and you might not improve straight away.

When something bad happens, you want to be able to think things through clearly. Try to take the time to engage with your problems rationally, rather than reacting emotionally. You can also think the problem through and analyse whether it’s really as bad as you think. If your brain immediately jumps to catastrophic situations, see if you can create an alternative scenario in your head. One thing I like to do is think, “Will this problem matter tomorrow? In one month? What about in a year?” This can help put some things into perspective.

When something unpleasant happens, you can also try to take action. Some people become paralysed by their problems, and find that when something goes wrong, they react by doing nothing. While you should certainly stop and think about what’s happened, you should also try to take some kind of action to overcome or work around the issue, and learn some strategies to boost your resilience to the situation.

You can also work on some things over a longer period of time that will help you to develop strategies for promoting resilience and developing self-awareness of your emotions and how you react. Start by reading this information page from Kids Helpline. Use the strategies listed as a starting point to digging deeper into how they might be able to help you. A great place to start is by asking someone you respect how he or she copes. Asking someone you have a strong connection with is a good place to start, because often how they deal with situations should resonate with you.

Learning to accept change as a normal part of life can help you adjust to different situations and problems more easily. Learning to become more optimistic by keeping a positive view of yourself and the world around you also helps you move on from small problems.

It’s also a good idea to practice self-care so that when something testing does happen, you are better equipped to deal with it. This includes things like sleeping well, eating healthily, getting some exercise, maintaining positive relationships, or even something small like having a bath or reading a book.

When uneasy things do happen, take the time to reflect on what happened and how you dealt with it. Even if you didn’t react in a way you would like to repeat, you can learn from that mistake. If you got a bad mark and reacted by ignoring that subject altogether, you can start fresh today by choosing to study that subject. If you had a fight with a friend, you can learn from the situation by thinking what you wouldn’t do next time you’re in a similar situation.

It’s also important to remember that even though being resilient and looking out for yourself is a great skill to have, you should also ask for help if you need it. Your family, friends and school will provide assistance if you’re struggling. Or you can seek advice from Kids Helpline by calling 1800 55 1800.

Make time for your friends in year 12

Author: Chris Ebbs

During some of the more stressful times at school, it can seem like a good idea to shut yourself up at home. However, it’s really important to stay connected to your friends. Year 12 can be stressful, and it’s a good idea to have a broad support network. Your friends are an integral part of this!

It’s likely that if your friends are in year 12 too, they’re also stressed. It’s a good idea to have friends with whom you can completely unwind. Try not to talk about study too much. Find another activity that will bring you together, something like going to see a movie, playing a sport together, going out for a meal, baking something, going for a walk or just hanging out.

The results of a recent study into the role of friendships in adolescent health conducted by a PhD student from Murdoch University showed that teenagers were less likely to become as emotionally affected by life stressors if they had a friend with them after they became upset. By monitoring their mood in real-time, it was observed that those with strong, healthy friendships were more resilient to the daily stressors of life.

When I was in year 12, two of my closest friends went to different schools. Although it’s sad that I didn’t get to see them every day, having friends at other schools was actually really great. It was a nice way to escape some of the day-to-day drama that was going on at my own school. So, if you have a friend you haven’t seen in a while, make a date!

While it feels like we can stay connected with our friends all the time by messaging and snapping and following them online, it can be really nice to catch up with them face to face when you can. It’s also a good way to separate your study time from your relaxation time.

So remember, when you’re studying, do it 100% – put your phone in a different room and really focus on what you’re doing. And then when you’re relaxing, do that 100% – try not to think about your studies.

Enjoying time with your friends is a great way to do just that.