THE SUMMER GAP, YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ACADEMICS, AND YOU
The Summer term offers a great chance to relax and re-work how you interact with academics, particularly because of the break in courses. Students who decide not to march to summer classes, aside from the usual meeting with friends and summer jobs, can also spend their time smoothing out issues that are throwing them off their academic game.
To be sure, a break from exams is welcomed. Burnout, especially after exams, seems pervasive among students – an issue that shows up clearly in studies or in the sheer number of YouTube videos advertising “How to Study 5x Faster for Exams Without Burnout (from a Med Student)” or “How To Finish 6 Months of Study In 72 Hours”. A veritable couch-potato retreat after all this is only to be expected.
Rather, I offer that staying involved in academics over the summer is beneficial for a number of reasons. For one, it offers a great opportunity to loiter in Major Hills Park and finally crack open that book kept on your nightstand!
I don’t want to suggest that students should burn away their summer studying by candlelight, unregulated and tedious academic work will only exacerbate burnout. Instead, I want to suggest that the summer gives you the chance to sit down and look at why the end of each term seems to feel so hard.
Taking time throughout the week to engage in some form of study, just like exercise, will help you figure out what is and isn’t working, what’s fun and what’s not. Sometimes bad material is unavoidable, a student might just hate a particular physics or comp-sci course. Figuring out how to make that material enjoyable with a variety of study methods, like flash cards, note rewriting, the supposed “pomodoro” method, can all help to break down an otherwise menial topic.
Aside from repairing the relationship we have between studying and ourselves, taking the time throughout the summer to engage in academics helps strengthen self-directed learning. Choosing to shirk the usual distractions of Instagram Reels and look towards something that challenges you is all the more rewarding because it isn’t easy.
Being able to explore and study at your own pace over the summer is also an excellent way to end up surprised by finding out you like a topic you didn’t have the time to explore before.
While required courses are necessary regardless of interest, finding new and interesting electives means that simple burn (or bird) courses transform into meaningful experiences during your time in undergrad.
Taking the time to develop skills involved with self-directed learning now comes with the additional benefit of making the inevitable transition into post-graduate life easier. Away from the rigid structures of university, self-direction is going to be a reliable guide towards learning what you want to learn.
Checking out materials you missed in previous courses you found interesting can offer a good starting spot, for example. Instead of the pressure of blitzing through a Socrates or Hegel reading in time for a DGD on Monday mornings, you can take your time to digest and sit with a work that you chose to sit with. This also comes with the benefit of keeping you relatively in the know over the summer gap between terms. No more jarring, panicked catchup sessions at the start of classes!
As for some ways to stay committed to being involved with academia over the summer, there is plenty of choice. Online tools like Discord allow for users to create groups to retain information or meet digitally. In-person discussion groups are appealing too, as book clubs continue to be popular and nearly every bookstore in Ottawa offers either their own selected readings or staff that can help tailor a reading to your needs.
Taking the time out of a busy, or slow and idyllic, summer, to stay invested in academics can reinvigorate the passion students have for their degree, allow them to find healthy study methods for them, and enrich relationships with others around them by intellectually engaging with one another.
If you agree, let’s hoist our flags and shout the call of an Egg-Head Summer!
