It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

The first and longest academic term of school is now drawing to a close. It has been a challenging one, with new teachers to meet, new topics to study, and those gloomy winter mornings. The Christmas holidays will give us all some valuable time off to spend with our families and enjoy a well-deserved break.

Christmas is definitely a time for watching movies, sleeping in, and eating more sweets than you can handle! But for a lot of students, it also provides a useful slot of study time before the mock exams next year that can be put to good use.

At Breakthrough Maths, we’ve created a custom study timetable for every student, depending on which class or year they are in. Keep reading to find out how you can get the right amount of study done during the holidays, while still getting the time to binge your favourite Christmas movies.

Consistency makes luck. The more you study, the luckier you will be in your exams.

Primary School

When in primary school, it is important to take time to enjoy the break. Spend time with your family and friends, and make the most of this beautiful time of year! However, you also want to be ready to get back in the swing of things in January, so it would help to revise some maths. Here’s what we suggest:

• Wednesday 4th January: Revise fractions for just 15 minutes. Try some questions, and see how much you remember from before the break.

Have you ever wondered how KFC can help you divide fractions? Yes, it doesn’t just help you with your hunger! Check out the video below to learn how you can ace fractions on your next exam.

If you’re looking for some more help with fractions, you can also check out IXL’s fractions page for hundreds of questions to try out. Don’t worry, you don’t need to get all of them done!

Junior Cycle

Whether you’re in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Year, the Christmas break marks the end of a difficult term in school. So, it is important to take a break from your studies, but it can also be useful to consolidate what you’ve learned over the past few months. Especially in 3rd Year, as you’ll have your mock exams right around the corner once you’re back in school.

Although, there’s absolutely no need to get started before the new year. Taking effective breaks is just as important as studying. We recommend that you study the following topics, using the resources linked:

• Tuesday 3rd January: Algebra – expressions. Use Studyclix for past paper questions. (20 minutes per session)
• Wednesday 4th January: Algebra – solving equations. Use Studyclix for past paper questions. (20 minutes per session)
• Thursday 5th January: Functions. Use Studyclix for past paper questions. (20 minutes per session)
• Friday 6th January: Coordinate geometry. Use Studyclix for past paper questions. (20 minutes per session)

If you follow this advice, by the time you return to school in January you will have covered all the main topics on the Junior Cycle Maths paper. If you need more help, you can check out our breakdown of the Junior Cycle syllabus by clicking here. Or, book a grind with us so you can get the best results possible.

5th Year

If you’re in 5th Year, you may be tempted to completely forget about school for the entire holidays. While we understand that the first term of the Leaving Cert can be extremely hard, it is important not to get out of your rhythm. We suggest that you just work for one day during the break, and focus on the most important topic for Leaving Certificate Maths: algebra.

• Friday 6th January: Algebra. Use Studyclix for past paper questions. Spend about 40 minutes on this, just to get yourself back in the swing of things before you go back to school.

6th Year

If you’re a 6th Year, then the Christmas break provides an extremely valuable break from classes so you can begin your preparation for the mock exams once you’re back. However, the Leaving Cert is a marathon, not a sprint, so it is equally important to take a break from school for a while and enjoy the holiday season with your family. Below, we’ve outlined the main topics you need to cover before your exams in the new year.

• Tuesday 3rd January: Algebra. Use Studyclix for past paper questions.
• Wednesday 4th January: Differentiation. Use Studyclix for past paper questions.
• Thursday 5th January: Coordinate geometry. Use Studyclix for past paper questions.
• Friday 6th January: Trigonometry. Use Studyclix for past paper questions.
• Saturday 7th January: Logs. Use Studyclix for past paper questions.

Work through the resources above in about 40-minute sessions each day. Each day, before you begin, write down exactly what you plan on completing. This will help you to stay focused and achieve your goals.

Again, we can’t stress enough how important it is for 6th Year students to take a break around Christmas time. Many students will find themselves burnt out in the new year if they don’t, which can ruin their ability to achieve the points they deserve in the mock exams.

General Advice

Before we finish off, here are 12 solid ideas to keep in mind for your maths study over the holidays.

On the 12 days of Christmas, Breakthrough Maths gave to me… 12 tips to help me study!

1. The night before you plan on studying, get everything ready. Tidy up your desk, get your books out, choose your favourite pen, and open any websites you might need to use. The easier it is to get started, the more likely you are to do it.
   
2. Write down your goals for the study session before you begin. Have a checklist of the topics you want to cover, broken down into small chunks. Write it down, and commit to it!
   
3. Think in ink. Don’t waste your time reading questions; get straight to solving them instead.
   
4. Use the Pomodoro technique. This involves studying in 25-minute chunks, with 5-minute breaks between them. After every 4 study sessions, you can take a longer break of 30 minutes to refresh your mind.
   
5. Use Forest to track your study. This is an app that makes studying fun, by having a tree that grows as you stay focused on your work. Check out Ali Abdaal’s video explaining how you can use it most effectively.
   
6. The best days to study are Wednesday and Saturday. Use this to your advantage.
   
7. Remove tempting distractions while you’re trying to work. Put your phone in another room and make sure you only have the necessary tabs open if you’re on your computer.
   
8. Hydrate! Having a bottle or glass of water next to you at all times is important, as it helps to keep you engaged while working on tough questions. Fill up your bottle during your study breaks.
   
9. Exercise, exercise, exercise. We know it’s cold, but you need to keep your mind and body fit at all times. Get your coat on and head out for a jog, or just do some light exercise at home. Not only do exams mentally drain us but they also physically drain us, so our bodies need to be looked after as well.
   
10. Start early in the morning. Work as you do during school. Start around 9 am so you can spend your evenings enjoying the holiday season.
    
11. Eat fruits and vegetables that will increase the energy you have and allow you to stay focused for much longer periods of time. But, we can make an exception to this for your Christmas pudding!
    
12. Find a quiet place inside the house to study. Stay away from where your younger siblings might be playing on the PlayStation, and make sure everyone knows that you are studying. We all get distracted so it is important to avoid distractions in the first place.

Enjoy Your Holidays!

That’s it from us! We hope you found our advice useful. Check out our website, breakthroughmaths.ie, to learn more about how we can help you reduce maths anxiety, develop confidence, and maximise your results in your exams.

TJ— CEO of Breakthrough Maths.

Need help in Maths? Contact the Breakthrough Maths team here.