If that’s the case, it’s a no brainer. Study, pass and make your gf happy. You have the rest of your life to take vacations.
Sometimes a break to come back refreshed helps. Let’s see what I did in the four months before LIII: Got married Went on honeymoon Landscaped my house Dealt with a critical illness in my family Did fine. If you get the 300+ hours in, taking a vacation week or not won’t matter. If its a use it or lose it week, and you’d be at work otherwise, then why is this even a question? Head to Cuba, drink some rum, have a good time.
I’ve got to agree with Geo. I bought a house in September, got married in February, went on my Honeymoon and then came back passed Level III. The trip helped me reset so that I wasn’t going into the ‘study like mad’ mode already worn down from life and the Q4/Q1 madness. I didn’t even bring my books and just focused on relaxing and making the most of my Honeymoon. Also didn’t hurt that I went all out on it and came back with a renewed determination to maximize my earning power so that I could go spend $2k/day on vacations again in the future!
^ You sure you’re not me? Hmm…
depends on the individual i suppose. If you can study effectively in a hotel room and feel that you can pass then go for it.
I couldn’t study unless i was at my desk at home or a meeting room at work. Tried to when I took a weeks holiday in February and tried to on the plane for work trips and it never worked for me.
You will fecking kick yourself if you fail though…
$2k a day? Feck, that makes me feel better about my holiday spending.
I’d feel too guilty going on vacation with an exam only months away.
Do it. I always took the week before the exam off (from studying). Went to Vegas before L1 and L2. Didn’t go anywhere before L3 but I did take some days off work to relax.
I firmly believe you won’t do yourself any good studying right up until the exam. Take the 2-3 days before and completely forget about it. Let you brain absorb what you’ve learned and try to release some stress.
I had about 9 weeks to study for L1 in December- took an 8 day carribean trip halfway through. I studied both ways on the plane, and for maybe 25-30 mins a few times during the week. The whole point of that was to simply keep the material somewhat fresh (nothing new, just review.) The mental break was great and I came back refreshed. I can’t comment on anything other than L1, but I would think that early april should be fine… plenty of time to come back and you’ll have the entire month before to lock it down.
I’m approximately 180* from this. I always took off the week before the exam, and studied 8-10 hours a day, even on Friday. But on Friday I only studied a couple of hours (just to keep the material fresh), then relaxed the rest of the day.
L1 is a walk in the park.
If you feel like you are prepared to take the test, then I would say do it. If you have to take this vacation or your other half will make you feel miserable until you go somewhere exotic for a week, definetly do it!, but (think of other options). If you don’t feel sure, don’t take it, but blow off the steam every weekend or Thursday with the money you saved not going to vacation. And most important… _ GO WITH YOUR GUT! _