Reading week - what is it? and what happens during it?
First-year student Louise Oswald explains the concept of reading week, and how she spends it
Before starting university, I had no clear concept as to what a reading week was. In this blog I will share a bit more information as to what reading week is and what I get done in reading week.
Reading week is a week in terms one and two where students from most courses are taken off of timetabled lectures/ tutorials to be given the opportunity to engage in relevant readings for their modules. During term one reading week is scheduled in early november, in term two it is in february.
Many students will take a few days to visit somewhere in Europe, I know of a few using this time to go skiing (rather jealous actually). As a home student, I am able to go home and do my readings and work remotely. I really appreciate this time mid-term to see my family and friends at home as well as taking a break from the buzz of London.
Some modules may provide specific work and reading they wish to be completed during reading week but others may not. Most of my courses this term use this as a week to catch up with the readings we may have missed.
It is also likely that coursework will be set to be submitted after reading week. I personally appreciate this extra time to work on those but I do try to finish them in good time so that I can still use my time to relax a little.
‘Reading week’ can sound quite deceiving as not all the work that will be done will be readings, some courses will be more practical and may require different types of tasks to be completed. You may find yourself doing some sketch work, some programming, having to watch a documentary or writing a lab report…
Being able to go home, I try to relax as much as I can before the work starts up again. The final days before reading week can begin to get quite hectic with deadlines, etc so being able to relax and take a bit of time to slow down are really useful!
Before coming home I spent the weekend meeting up with my friends, doing some of the things we’d delayed because of work- going to the cinema, having lunch out, trying the Dragon Cat Cafe’s Wheelcake and going to a football match.
I love to go on walks and runs so being back home I was able to take the time to go on a run with my sister again, it is the little things like this that I find myself missing.
I hope this article was able to explain a bit more about what reading week is as well as showing you what to expect!