Going on holidays in between exams?

Finals, always time-consuming, stressful, and sometimes even hard. Sometimes we see on social media classmates traveling during finals time and we always ask “Don’t they have exams to do?” or “Aren’t they studying?”. Well, this year I wanted to give it a try and be the one on the adventure during that period. How did I manage it and more importantly, did I pass everything? You will know all about it in this blog.

All is time management and confidence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the semester, I studied hard and put a lot of energy into all the classes, especially Micro and Macro (IB students will know the struggle), so I wouldn’t have to rely a lot on the finals, and believe me, it helped a lot. Then, when registering for the tests, I chose most of them in December and left just one by the start of January, so I could have some free time during that period. It was a risky decision, overall if it’s your first week. But it was totally worth it.

The storm before the calm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(This picture was taken the evening just before the test, sometimes God’s help is needed)

December started, winter is getting closer and closer, Christmas markets are being opened and for us, that also means that finals are right around the corner. The first weeks were rough, making the final presentations, adjusting them, and the typical arguments with your study group so the presentation will be nice. But that was just the prelude of the last 2 study weeks of December. I had 4 tests in a week, and managing the time to study for each was tricky, but at the same time was full of adrenaline and satisfaction afterwards. With all the efforts and a little luck, I nailed them and just I had one test left, the one I had to study the most since it wasn’t my strong side.

Christmas time

During Christmas I took profit of the free time and went to Slovakia, since it’s close and have a lot of friends there, I was an exchange student there whilst I was a teenager, so I stayed with my host family and could experience again the Slovak Christmas, eat some Kapustnica and Bryndzove Halusky and also went to the mountains, which is a must do if you visit that Centro-European country. Right after New Years’ I finished a paper, which coincidentally was about Slovakia, and started studying for the last test.

The last test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a good Christmas break, it was time to go back to Prague for the final test, which for me was the most difficult one. Going for walks through the city to refresh the minf and studying with friends in a café was routine for 3 consecutive days while we were figuring out calculations and reading once, twice, and even three times the theories, and it was time for the test, the last one before my winter trip. And fortunately, I managed to pass it. So now it was time to quickly pack and prepare the last things for the trip.

Escaping winter

And it was time, I woke up at 5:30 on January the 12th, and started my journey towards Morocco with my partner, everything went pretty easily, except for a 3-hour delay which made us arrive by midnight. Morocco was an extremely beautiful country with beautiful people, the culture was totally different than in Prague, the cuisine was top-notch, and the weather was just perfect, neither too cold nor too warm. One of the things I did the most in Morocco was to send pictures of me going around Marrakesh in a T-shirt while in Prague was -10°C. Although karma hit hard, we got covid during the holidays. But at least we enjoyed every single second of it.

Balancing it, going north

After the mini spring we had in Morocco, it was time to go back to winter, and this time to one even colder, to Norway. There I stayed at my partner’s house, and we didn’t do much since we were recovering from Covid. However, I got to eat some Norwegian salmon and have a good relaxing time there. Then I headed back to Prague after 16 days of traveling and the holidays were over.

To conclude this blog, I want to give you some tips on how to manage to go on holiday during the exam period, and yes I passed everything (Fortunately)

  • Plan it: Choose exam dates wisely and leave some space if you want to travel during this period, also the longer you plan it, the cheaper It’s going to be.
  • Don’t be afraid of doing it: If You’re afraid that you will not be able to pass the exam, be sure to be back in place when the retakes will take place.
  • Be brave: Try new things, new cultures and try to go local, at least for a day.
  • What if I don’t want to go too far away? There are a lot of magical places around Prague and in the Czech Republic, or if you want you can take a train, many big cities are less than 6 hours away and you can experience all the culture and history that is behind them. Those are the gems of studying in the heart of Europe.

I hope this blog will help you in the future and if you have more questions, feel free to contact me!