so in honour of my AS exams finishing this Thursday (!!) and since it's june i know most of my fellow uk-exam-board studyblrs will be finishing up with GCSEs and A Levels too, i've come up with a bunch of things to do for that listless time after exams have finished and you don't know what to do with yourself anymore.
personally after i finished IGCSE last year the weirdest thing was that i was suddenly... empty. for the longest time studying for those exams was the most important thing in my life, and so much of my personal growth took place during those two years that after my last exam i was just a little awed by the fact that i was actually done with them.
obviously after exams are done you'll want to relax, so here are a few productive-ish ways to make your break count for something.
1. Clean
it felt SO GOOD the night IGCSE finished to just go through my desk and throw out all the junk I had accumulated and kept procrastinating cleaning up because i didn't have time. old notes i didn't need, notebooks, rough work, scrap paper - hell, even a collection of old pens that had long since run out of ink - the pile of rubbish i threw out that day made me feel so much lighter. bonus: play that album you've been meaning to listen to (cough hopeless fountain kingdom) while you work
2. Read a classic
i've had Anna Karenina for about a year now i think and hopefully after Thursday i'll start reading it
3. Learn to code
this post is v informative. another thing i want to do this summer
4. College/uni stuff
if you've just finished AS and plan on going to uni after next year, start digging around on the internet if you haven't already for what you might be interested in
5. Record your day in photos
i've been fascinated by the idea of journaling for basically all my life - i began keeping a diary when i was maybe 7, and though it's been sporadic i've kept it up till now. however, my problem is oftentimes i'm just too lazy to write. with snapchat's time filter i've found a really interesting way of keeping track of your day is just by periodically taking photos and swiping the time filter onto it. this works especially well for when there's an event going on (eg graduation/prom) and it's more inconspicuous than vlogging.
6. Watch (not binge-watch 5 seasons in one night) a tv series
personally i know that if i watch a tv show as it comes out every week i'll get too distracted by it to focus on studying so normally i wait till a show is done then watch it in a few days. i've promised to start Supergirl season 2 with my brother starting Friday
7. Watch a series on Crash Course
this channel is such a lot of fun, and they keep expanding ! personally i'm really excited to watch their mythology videos
8. Watch a biographical movie/show
eg.
The Imitation Game (Alan Turing)
The Theory of Everything (Stephen Hawking)
The Crown (Queen Elizabeth II)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela)
Jackie (First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy)
The Pianist (Wladyslaw Szpilman)
Frida (Frida Kahlo + Diego Rivera)
there’s actually a biopic on Oscar Wilde scheduled to come out this year too, which sounds pretty interesting. i also remember seeing something on Mary Shelley so yeah there’s loads of interesting stuff and these movies tend to have cool soundtracks and are pretty inspiring. call me cliche but personal fave is the theory of everything which has beautiful music by Jóhann Jóhannsson as well + Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones *heart eyes*
9. Clean out your hard drives
10. Read Shakespeare
i really like his play King Henry V
11. Exercise
it's inevitable for almost everyone that your exercise routine gets thoroughly fucked over during exam season, so pull it back together
12. Text all the friends/family you've been meaning to
13. Learn a new language/ brush up on an old one
Duolingo is pretty great for this
14. Listen to all those podcasts you said you'd listen to later
15. Go through all the shit you've bookmarked on tumblr
16. TED TALKS !
and i think that’s it for now. hope we all get amazing results come august 💙
-ari x
