Summer books for teens offer abundant benefits. Research consistently links active reading to improved grades, but the advantages extend beyond the classroom. Delving into the world of summer books exposes you to multiple perspectives, broadens your horizons, and significantly enhances your vocabulary.
Well, what about life after High School? Reading’s got that covered too. The more you read, the more your reading, writing, and comprehension skills get developed, thus preparing you for any competitive exam you need to take – the SAT, ACT, GMAT – you name it.
This Summer, whether you’re reading for a hobby or to build your skills, we’re here to support you. Having vast experience with the IB syllabus and popular reads, here is our recommended list of top 10 books. If you’re game to read more, we’ve got a longer list for you at the end of this article – they even have PDF links!
We hope you can read, enjoy, and benefit from many of these brilliant summer books over the summer. Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
Human Acts – Han Kang
Out of many summer books, our first recommendation is Human Acts by Han King. By focusing on the logistics of cataloging the bodies, Han lulls us into the horror, and before we know it, we are there, inside the gymnasium, awe-struck by the amount of pain humans can inflict on one another and, in the obverse, the dignity with which the volunteers wash and care for the dead. In essence, we witness the impossibly large spectrum of humanity and wonder how it is that one end could be so different from the other.
Nami Mun's reveiw of the novel in the New York Times, dated January 10, 2017.
Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Fiercely political and bleak, yet witty and wise, the novel won the inaugural Arthur C Clarke award in 1987, but Atwood has always maintained that the novel is not classifiable science fiction. Nothing practiced in the Republic of Gilead is genuinely futuristic. She is right, and this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by biological determinism and misogyny.
Charlotte Newman’s review of the novel on its 25th Anniversary; The Guardian, September 26, 2016
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Gatsby’s magic emanates not only from its powerhouse poetic style — in which ordinary American language becomes unearthly — but from the authority with which it nails who we want to be as Americans. Not who we are; who we want to be. It’s that wanting that runs through every page of Gatsby, making it our Greatest American Novel. But it’s also our easiest Great American Novel to underrate: too short; too tempting to misread as just a love story gone wrong; too mired in the Roaring Twenties and all that jazz.”
Maureen Corrigan, in his book, ‘So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures'
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
“ The narrative of Klara and the Sun is energized by the friction between two different types of love: one that is selfish, overprotective, and anxious, and one that is generous, open, and benevolent. It feels like a message for all of us as we go about our drearily circumscribed days. What’s beyond doubt is that Ishiguro has written another masterpiece, a work that makes us feel afresh the beauty and fragility of our humanity. “
The Guardian, dated March 1, 2021
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The novel was a literary as well as a political bombshell; it received an enthusiastic reception on the part of liberal writers, a cautious one from the fence sitters, and it infuriated the die-hards.”
Leopold Labedz
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
“There is no single tragedy at the heart of Arundhati Roy’s devastating first novel. Although ”The God of Small Things” opens with memories of a family grieving around a drowned child’s coffin, there are plenty of other intimate horrors still to come, and they compete for the reader’s sympathy with the furious energy of cats in a sack. Yet the quality of Ms. Roy’s narration is so extraordinary — at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple — that the reader remains enthralled all the way through to its agonizing finish.”
Review in the New York Times
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
“Not until the work of Flaubert did prose lose the stigma of aesthetic inferiority. Ever since Madame Bovary, the art of the novel has been considered equal to the art of poetry.”
Milan Kundera in the preface of his novel, The Joke
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
“ Brave New World is a scary depiction of what could soon be our future. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well-written and thought-provoking novel.”.”
Review in The Guardian dated March 29, 2012
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale – Art Spiegelman (Graphic Novel)
“This was in equal parts outrageous, disturbing, subversive, witty — and yet somehow comforting,”
Jeff Smith, director of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival, Ohio
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (Graphic Novel)
“…Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always sincere and revealing.”
Andrew Arnold of TIME, which included Persepolis in its "Best Novels of 2003" list
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read. You can download it using the button below. We also have a complete IB Reading list with links to the books! Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
The Summer Break is coming up! We know you’re looking to make the most out of it before the fraught of grade 10 kicks in. We have made the perfect reading list to accompany and suit your every mood. Do you want to get lost in another world? Have a comfortable read? Go on an adventure? Or perhaps delve into a heart-touching story? We have got you covered. These top 10 Summer 2024 reads will not only quench your thirst for reading and learning but will also give you a headstart for grade 10!
Get started with our carefully curated top ten with the help of our printable checklist at the bottom!
We also have an extensive list of books if you check this list off!
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics
1. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
“(And yes, this is certainly a novel that explores the concepts of cultural identity, rootlessness, tradition, and familial expectation – as well as the way that names subtly (and not so subtly) alter our perceptions of ourselves – but it’s very much to its credit that it never succumbs to the clichés those themes so often entail. Instead, Lahiri turns it into something both larger and simpler: the story of a man and his family, his life and hopes, loves and sorrows.”
The Guardian, dated January 17, 2004
2. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“It is extremely engaging and not only is it a good laugh, but you get to travel along the journey of life with Kambili”
The Observer, dated October 27, 2015
3. Rebecca byDaphne du Maurier
“Rebecca blends elements of psychological thriller, romance, and gothic horror. In many ways it is a retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, but with stranger and more fascinating twists. So rarely do ‘classics’ qualify as page-turners, but Du Maurier’s novel fits the bill. It’s compelling and compulsively readable.”
Review by Tristen Brudy on readings.com
4. Washington Square by Henry James
“We read James not for his stories or his characters but for the one thing that can’t be adapted: his mind. We know it, in its arguments with itself, it’s endlessly refining discernment, its flickering shifts and glints of wisdom.”
Review by Mona Simpson in The New Yorker
5. Yerma by Federico García Lorca
“Lorca’s drama has a folkloric quality that can be summed up by a familiar children’s rhyme: the farmer wants a wife, the wife wants a child. Yet what happens after several barren summers when the wife is still trying, but the farmer is not trying nearly hard enough? Most interpretations focus on the anguish of Yerma’s continued failure to conceive in an oppressively Catholic, overtly superstitious society, which places faith in dubious fertility rites and regards childless women to be cursed.”
The Guardian, dated October 28, 2011
6. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
“I thought ‘A Separate Peace’ was a marvelous book. It was beyond anything he ever did later and anyone else had done of that sort”
Gore Vidal on John Knowles’ book “A Separate Peace”
7. A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
“a work of complete, exhilarating originality’ which provides a real escape from the middlebrow, middle-class vacuum of the West End”
Lindsay Anderson, prominent critic, of ‘The Taste of Honey’
8. Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka
“A magnificent play, Death and the King’s Horseman transcends categorization with moments of comedy, poetry, music, philosophy, and drama. Soyinka speaks beautifully on death, life, and human nature in the play, and Mary Moody Northen Theatre and ProArts give us the full range in their vibrant, captivating, and true production.”
Review on theaustinchronical.com
9. Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage
“The 17-year-old protagonist in Lynn Nottage’s “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” is free to indulge in Hollywood-fueled fantasies, but she also must confront the less glamorous reality of life in a troubled African-American family in Brooklyn in 1950.”
Review on variety.com
10. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
“All I can say is that Mr. Williams has written a strong, wholly believable play that, starting in a low key, mounts slowly and inexorably to its shocking climax.”
Review in The Theatre by Wolcott Gibbs in 1947
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
Grade 9 is the start of an exciting phase of learning with new IGCSE subjects to delve into. Yet, it can also be daunting too – with the pressure of Grade 10 looming ahead and the urgency to “improve your grades before it’s too late”. We’ve found the perfect way for you to both enjoy your vacation and use it productively. Here’s introducing you to the world of books!
Reading widely not only supports written subjects such as English, History, Geography, Drama, Economics and Global Citizenship, but also gives you an awareness of the world around you. Giving you new perspectives through the experiences of others, it lays rich foundations for your future IB studies, thus enabling you to learn without even knowing it.
To get you started we have carefully hand picked a full list of valuable prose and drama texts from the IGCSE Literature curriculums as well as personal recommendations. The full list can be accessed at the bottom of this page. We hope you are able to read as many of these brilliant works from over the summer.
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
Hard Times by Charles Dickens (Prose)
“(A) passionate revolt against the whole industrial order of the modern world”
George Bernard Shaw’s review
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Prose)
“A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement—”a story that will make you believe in God,” as one character says.”
Review by Publishersweekly.com
The Whale Rider byWiti Ihimaera (Drama)
“The genius of the movie (Play) is the way it sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving.”
Roger Ebert’s review of the movie based on the bestselling Play.
Journey’s End by R C Sherriff (Drama)
“At the end of the evening, in common with the rest of the audience, I went out into the street ennobled and simplified by a superb experience … For ten years we have demanded the truth about the War…Here in this play, “Journey’s End,” it is at last recovered.”
Hugh Walpole’s review in The Morning Post in 1929
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay(Prose)
“In the seemingly limitless pantheon of gone-girl literature, “Picnic at Hanging Rock” might take the prize for best setting.”
Jia Tolentino’s review on Newyorker.com
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan(Prose)
“The secret of Amy Tan’s enormous popularity is her ability to give a western audience nicely finessed representations of the exotic while convincing them of the universality of her themes. Here, as previously, her subject is the tension between a first-generation Chinese-American woman and her awkwardly semi-assimilated mother. Tan is at once standing on the inside – the purveyor of secret histories and forgotten traditions – and shaking her head in bewilderment from without.”
The Guardian, dated March 24, 2001
Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert L Stevenson(Prose)
“I don’t believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Louis came downstairs in a fever; read nearly half the book aloud; and then, while we were still gasping, he was away again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first draft took “so long as three days.”
Lloyd Osborne, Stevenson’s stepson, talking about the novel and Stevenson’s writing experience
Of Mice and men by John Steinbeck (Prose)
“The book is great, not only because of the great use of description, but the characters, because Steinbeck shows how children are, in some cases, better people than adults in the way that they do not judge people because they do not see people or things from that point of view.”
Children’s Review, The Guardian, dated, 21 December 2013
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Drama)
“In some ways …Miss Williams’s (a character in the play) flinty, intelligent underplaying keeps sentimentality at bay to give us a woman of commanding strength and pride. In her triumphant final moment – in which she takes a last look at her tenement home before leaving it forever – we can almost feel Lorraine Hansberry herself looking ahead to the future that she helped make but, tragically, never knew.”
Frank Rich, writing for the 25th Anniversary of the play, in The New York Times, dated Oct. 5, 1983
An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley (Drama)
“An Inspector Calls is scathing in its criticism of middle-class hypocrisy. The play gives voice to Priestley’s strong socialist principles, and carries a clear moral message, stressing the importance of social responsibility: ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”
The British Library
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
Engaging in summer reading early not only lays a strong foundation for your education but also nurtures personal growth. It enhances your ability to express yourself, broadens your worldview, and cultivates critical thinking skills.
We’ve carefully created a recommended Top 10 book list which you can also download and print to use as a checklist and track your reading progress through the summer!
The full reading list is also available in case you complete these 10 books. Click here to download it.
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage . . . and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer but an absolutely essential one.”
Bebe Moore Campbell of the New York Times Book Review
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
“The Outsiders is a classic in young adult fiction that revolutionized the genre by presenting adolescent characters that were the opposite of everything a teenager, by adult standards, should have been.”
The Guardian, dated September 23, 2015
The Whale Rider byWiti Ihimaera
“The genius of the movie (Play) is the way it sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough, and genuinely moving.”
Roger Ebert's review of the movie is based on the bestselling Play
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
“This is the adventure of a lifetime. You will not be disappointed. I would give this book a solid 9/10 because it was just a great read overall. Being at the same level as the Lord of the Rings is no mean feat, but this book manages it with ease! ”
The Guardian, dated July 18, 2013
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Altogether we take great joy in recording our conviction that Great Expectations is a masterpiece.
Review in The Atlantic
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
There is something in the force of Alexie’s description that captures your heart, even while some of his raunchiest statements can turn your stomach…Knowing that he fought a successful fight against all the things that oppressed him as a kid gives (the book) even greater resonance. Hope is indeed the thing with feathers.
Jana Siciliano's review on Bookreporter.com
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
“Beautifully written in Starr’s authentic first-person voice, this is a marvel of verisimilitude.”
Michael Cart writing in Booklist
The Giver by Lois Lowry
“With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form – raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.”
Review by PublishersWeekly.com
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
“I can promise you that you’ll finish the book, left with a new and fresh outlook on the world around you and perhaps a thought as to what exactly Lord of the Flies is about. Indeed its inner meaning is very dark, making the reader wonder how thin the line between good and evil really is.”
The Guardian, dated January 24, 2012
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoos
The heroism in Phillip Hoose’s “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” reads almost like a pulp-fiction tale of juvenile swashbuckling…Told in straightforward, even prosaic language, this account will help young readers imagine themselves in the midst of the unimaginable — and will show them how kids much like them managed to survive.”
M.T. Anserson reviewing for The New York Times, dated September 11, 2015
Do share this summer reading list with your friends too! Happy Reading!
In this blogpost, we’ll look at a well-curated list of summer reads for grades 5 and 6, helping them build on their literary skills and taking them on reading adventures!
“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has a timeless message from a less complex era, and it continues to resonate.”
Leonard Everett Fisher of The Horn Book Magazine wrote in 2000
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
“The Secret Garden is one of the greatest books ever written for children”.
Jeffrey Masson
3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“Since the first publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 150 years ago, Lewis Carroll’s work has spawned a whole industry, from films and theme park rides to products such as a “cute and sassy” Alice costume (“petticoat and stockings not included”). The blank-faced little girl made famous by John Tenniel’s original illustrations has become a cultural inkblot we can interpret in any way we like.”
In 2015, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in The Guardian.
4. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
A simple story about the lives of three children living near the railway tracks cannot be told in a better way than this. It has the power to move even the hardest heart. Edith Nesbit has surely brought the liveliness through words as if it were a real story.
The Guardian, dated May 13, 2012
5. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Designed to forever kindle a dream of high romance and distant horizons, Treasure Island is the realization of an ideal, that which is promised in its provocative and beckoning map; a vision not only of white skeletons but also green palm trees and sapphire seas.”
G. K. Chesterton
6. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Kipling does manage to create an intense world that sucks you in with his descriptions of the jungle and the creatures that live there. I felt myself hearing the strange noises, feeling the ground slither with snakes and sweating in the heat of the penetrating environment of the jungle’s overpowering force.
The Guardian, dated June 10, 2015
7. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
“A book that we all greatly loved and admired and read aloud or alone, over and over and over: The Wind in the Willows. This book is, in a way, two separate books put into one. There are, on the one hand, those chapters concerned with the adventures of Toad; and on the other hand, there are those chapters that explore human emotions – the emotions of fear, nostalgia, awe, wanderlust.”
In The Enchanted Places, Christopher Robin Milne wrote of The Wind in the Willows
8. Illegal by Eoin Colfer
‘A powerful, compelling work, evocatively illustrated … It would take a hard heart not to be moved by this book.’
Financial Times
9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“Alcott’s writing was elegant yet poignant and haunting at moments, and perfect for the era it was set in, whilst the sister’s personalities were intricately described throughout the whole book. It gave you a sense of what it was like to be a normal family in the 1800s and subtly showed the feelings of each character.”
The Guardian, dated April 13, 2013
10. Dial a Ghost by Eva Ibbotson
“Once again, Ibbotson (Which Witch; Island of the Aunts) dishes up an irresistible brew of magical high jinks and adventure in this tongue-in-cheek post-WWII ghost story set in Britain and starring two families of displaced spooks.”
Review by Publishersweekly.com
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
The exams have finally ended! Phew. You can embrace this period for a while before the realization hits you that school is actually the easier part of life. Choosing a career and giving it your 100% is the real task. And to top it all, there are many career myths or misconceptions that halt your journey to a stop. As a current student, or an intern, you might be having many questions related to the development of your career. Questions like ‘What will I do with my degree?’ or ‘How do I know if I’m making the right choice?’. As someone who has just begun working, there are still doubts about where you’re headed. These questions might even give you some anxiety when you have no foresight into the future. However, there are many myths developed over decades that give rise to this uncertainty. This blog post aims to debunk some of them, at the same time clearing the many doubts that you might have around your future career goals.
Myth No. 1: Everyone already has it all planned out
This isn’t true most of the time. Many students change their major subject a few times before they graduate with a degree of their choice. One cannot know for sure what they want to do for the rest of their lives without having experiences or understanding themselves. You think your friends and peers have it all figured out? The truth is they may have gone through or may be going through the same decision-making process you are. They are also assessing what they actually want to do. Just because you have decided to be a lawyer, does not really mean that you’d be one for the rest of your life. And that brings us to the second point:
Myth No. 2: Once you’ve chosen a career, you stick to it for life.
You’ve spent a good portion of your academic life prepping for Chemical Engineering. But only recently have you discovered that you’re inclined towards biology. Years of hard work and time are already invested in your career! You’re anxious about putting that all behind and spending a couple of more years studying again but in a different field this time. It is reported that an average person goes through at least 6 careers in their lives before retirement. Shocking, isn’t it? But also very true. Choosing a career option now does not guarantee or limit you to that same position 10 years from now, or even 5 years. So, if you’re unsure or unhappy with your career plan, you can reassess what you wish to do and get yourself back on your desired track! It will require patience and alot of deliberating before making the big switch.
Myth No. 3: You might hate it now, but you’ll grow to love it
Starting on a job that you dread from day one is the glaring red signal that tells you to re-direct your path. You think you’ll grow to like it. A year has passed and you still find it daunting to leave the house and face the colleagues and the tasks which you already hate. To tell you the truth, it’s not going to get better. If this is you, you need to consider handing in your papers and giving yourself a break to reassess.
As mentioned before, this is not the end of the world! Changing a career, or just the firm that you’re working in does not undermine your abilities or make you look like a failure. In fact, it has become ‘trendy’ to change your job every couple of years. Some might even feel outdated not to do so! While being trendy isn’t a reason to switch roles or careers, it would be wise to take stock of your professional growth and direction. Give yourself a second chance (or a third or fourth, nobody’s judging and nobody’s keeping tabs).
Myth No. 4: You must choose a career based on your passion
Passion-driven careers do not guarantee the perfect job role for you. What you need to understand is that it’s not just the passion for that job, say as a singer or a litigator that should keep you hooked onto the job role. What if you love to sing, and are pretty darn good at it, but you’re also an introvert and cannot face the stage without a mini panic attack? Or let’s say, you’re pretty good at manipulating decisions but you hate reading! You need to reflect on your skills, personality traits, threshold, capacity, along with your interest. This will make sure that you’ve chosen the correct career option for yourself. So before making a definite decision, you must consider the perfect balance between skills, interests, and output.
Myth No. 5: Hard work will ensure a climb up the ladder
This could be hard for some of you to digest, but working hard does not necessarily mean that you’re on the path towards success. Spending hours on desk or on site to appease your employer may not be the best way to impress them. Focus on your skills and not the amount of time you spend on a task. There is someone else that might get the job done much faster and also more efficiently; take inspiration from that person. If you’re working towards an appraisal, then deliver beyond your job description. Look for opportunities that show your skill sets above your profile and required day-to-day tasks. If you think you need to study further, or take a course to hone your skills, then take that course to get ahead. Hard work is important but what’s better? Smart work.
As Mark Twain has said, “The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it’s that they know so many things that just aren’t so.” When we’re not sure about something, we must keep exploring or researching to find our answers. When you have doubts or anxieties related to your career options, you can always reach out to our Career Guidance experts at Young Scholarz who can provide the right counselling you need to move forward.
If you’ve chosen a gap year after high school, this post is a must-read for insight. If you’re still deciding, explore our blog post on what a gap year entails, including pros and cons. A variety of opportunities are available for students after school and each leads to great experiences and life lessons. Many of these activities are not only fun to take up, but they also make an impressive impact on your resume.
Internship
Gaining hands-on experience in the field you’re interested in is as important as learning the theory. Many famous MNCs including Google and Amazon offer online internships as well which is convenient if you’re traveling. Explore local companies or start-ups, applying for internships to gain valuable experience in a field of your interest. Being an intern will give you a chance to connect with professionals in the field and those last for a lifetime. It will also give you a chance to know whether you want to pursue a career in the field you are interning in.
Travel
Exploring new places should be on your agenda. But do not fail to add enough adventurous activities that are essential to have a wholesome experience. Take up activities like trekking, camping, learning water sports along with the usual sightseeing. Try to discover offbeat places to stay at instead of popular hotel chains. This will help you meet new people and make useful social connections. Apart from that, spending time in nature will help you know yourself better as well. Traveling also helps students learn to cope in an unfamiliar environment. If you’d like to travel for your gap year but don’t think you can afford it, try looking for volunteer programs. Also, other similar work options to help you fund your expenses throughout the year. This will also add an edge to your CV and help you get a good job when you graduate.
Learn a Foreign Language
It is a well-known fact that being able to converse in more than one language is always a good thing. Make a list of the languages that are most spoken in the nation you reside in or in the country you want to go to in the future and start by learning them. Many languages have their certifications which denote a person’s proficiency in them. All you need to do is take a class, register for the exam, and obtain the required credentials. If you’ve learned a foreign language in high school, use your gap year to master it. Companies seek multilingual skills. It’s been proven that there are cognitive benefits to having a bilingual or a trilingual brain as well.
Volunteer
Even within a 5-mile radius from where you live, there will be associations and organizations that need volunteers to aid a mission for positive social change. It is essential to find out what you are passionate about to volunteer. If you are fascinated by animals, visit animal shelters and register for volunteer positions. If you’re good with children, you can always work for associations that provide education to unfortunate children and become a volunteer teacher. There are many possibilities in this matter and there are many opportunities that will allow you to volunteer at abroad locations as well. The trick is to do thorough research and find out what suits you best. This journey will lead you to become a more compassionate and empathetic citizen of the world and will also train you for academic as well as professional situations.
Develop good daily habits and learn life skills
With so much on your plate from focussing on academics to keeping up with extracurriculars, it is understandable that time is limited. Learning skills such as cooking, budgeting, having a daily routine, or even practices such as mindfulness and healthcare, seem challenging. In the technological era, which moves at such a fast pace; people often forget how important these things are to sustain a healthy life. So while you have time to take a breather, it is necessary to train yourself to function efficiently. Join a gym or a yoga class and experience what it is like to commit to a goal and achieve it. Secondly, experiment with different cuisines and cook at least one meal a day for yourself. Adding mindfulness activities to the mix will prove beneficial in the long run. While not CV additions, these activities build inner strength, fueling success in the professional world.
Take your hobbies to the next level
Access to the internet provides a platform to showcase skills, fostering personal growth and skill enhancement. Start a social media page on which you post snippets of you working on your hobby and what you create. Enjoy performing arts? Explore local open mics for beginners to showcase your talent and gain valuable experience in the scene. Dancing, cooking, painting, or bullet journaling—hobbies uniquely bring relaxation and rejuvenation, enhancing your overall well-being and satisfaction. This will not only give you a confidence boost but will also help you be aware of where you can improve.
All in all, if you manage to take up two or three of the points mentioned above, you will get the best out of your gap year. These personal growth activities positively impact the admissions committee during university interviews, showcasing your character and commitment. If you’re still looking for cognitively enhancing activities to do over the summer, stay tuned to Young Scholarz’s social media platforms. Our website will also have information on innovative summer workshops and programs!
After you are done with high school, a wave of excitement and uncertainty is bound to follow. You have spent years preparing for a career and researching. This is the time to make decisions and handle dilemmas calmly with as much research as possible. There is a vast array of opportunities available and streams to choose from. However, there is one question that might arise too – what is a gap year, and should you consider taking it? In this blog post, we help you gain some insight. We provide you with a list of merits and demerits when it comes to taking a gap year after high school.
What is a gap year?
A gap year entails a semester or year of experiential learning, typically taken after high school and before career or postsecondary education. It is meant to deepen one’s practical, professional, and personal awareness. For high school students or graduates considering a gap year, the options are plentiful and can be structured programs or self-guided. A wide range of options can be explored during a gap year. These are experiences with a focus on ecology, animal welfare and conservation, language studies, coding, cultural immersion, and a variety of other topics. A gap year looks different for everyone. It’s a full year or a semester of learning experiences that might include travel, volunteering, paid work, an internship, or a combination of these things. It’s typically taken after high school graduation before starting college.
Why should you take a gap year?
Keep in mind that a gap year isn’t taking a year off. It’s a year on. It’s a year of doing, learning, thinking, planning, and taking advantage of the moment. Don’t think of a gap year as an alternative to starting college. Think of it instead as an experience that can prepare you for college. You build a sense of self-awareness and independence—valuable skills for progressing in any major. Beyond college, a gap year can help you stand out in your résumé. Apart from that, more and more students are taking five years or longer to finish college, perhaps because they are initially enrolling in programs that aren’t a perfect fit. A gap year can help give you the time and experience to choose the college and program that’s best suited for you, which makes it time well spent!
Overall, you get enough time to prepare for a solid career ahead by taking a gap year. This experience can also give you an edge over peers in your field when looking for internships and jobs. If you’re considering a career with a long and expensive educational path, check if it’s a good fit. Furthermore, when you join college after a year of learning new skills and gaining experience, you will be able to put them to use in your day-to-day college life. It will be like having a headstart on the college experience.
Why should you avoid taking a gap year?
You might not make it back to school. This is one of the biggest reasons why people say students shouldn’t take a gap year. It can be hard to jump back into academia after you’ve had a taste of living on your own. You can adapt to the lifestyle you initiate, and motivating yourself to return can become challenging. Some people find they like the slower-paced lifestyle they adopt during their gap year. Whereas some people enjoy making a living and don’t want to give that up to go back to school. To avoid this con, make a resolute plan for your gap year and stick to it.
Another common disadvantage many students who opt for a gap year face is the social stigma that comes with it. Not everyone understands that taking a gap year can be beneficial and sometimes it’s difficult to convince your guardians who would much rather choose the conventional path.
Another thing that may stand in your way is finance. While you can make money during a gap year, this year could also be very financially stressful depending on what you plan to do with your time. If you anticipate money being a stressor, plan far in advance for how you will overcome this con. Moreover, you don’t want to miss opportunities with friends and your social circle. While you take your gap year, most of your friends will probably be heading off to college, so you’ll no longer be on the same academic calendar. You could miss out on the bonding of starting college together, traveling during spring break, and eventually graduating together. Keep in mind though, that you’ll likely make many new friends during your gap year, and the opportunities awaiting you during a gap year are endless.
Final Thoughts
Like all things in life, taking a gap year is a risk you might take which could turn out to be the best decision you make or it could cause a few backlogs in your life. Based on the points mentioned above, we hope you can make an informed decision. If you choose not to take a gap year and indulge yourself in the university experience, Young Scholarz can guide you. We have Career Counselling and University application support for writing SoPs and selecting your courses in the first year. If you decide to take a gap year, there are many things you will have to figure out. For example, what can you explore during this time, how to manage finances, what internships you can take up and so much more. Look out for another informative blog from us next week on how to navigate a gap year.
We’re not telling you to change your profession. We’re not even telling you to get the highest-paying job – this blog post isn’t about that. What we’re doing here is helping you reach a conclusion and decide on the right degree. This could lead to the right job that you would potentially be satisfied with. Be it a programmer or a highly sought-after nurse, many jobs are quickly gaining recognition for their high demand. We have compiled a few careers in 2024 that would give some insight into these occupations and make things just a tad bit easier for you to conclude.
1. Artificial Intelligence
We depend on AI for every single task of our lives. From having a digital assistant check our schedules for us to remind us about a movie that we’ve just paid for in the theatre! According to the Emerging Jobs Report by LinkedIn, the hiring growth for AI jobs has increased by 74% in the past four years. Being a part of many other industries, AI forms the skeleton of various fields and increases employability as well as demand.
In case you’re still dabbling, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted a 31.4% increase in jobs, by 2030, for data scientists and mathematical science professionals, which are both crucial to AI. With the inclusion of subfields such as computer vision, it has incorporated machine learning, which teaches machines to improve and hone skills on their own! Machine learning jobs to have an equally promising growth in the next couple of years.
AI has a favorable future as it helps aid in various fields with its life-changing technology, ranging from medical uses like diagnosing diseases to transportation in the form of self-driving vehicles. Not only does it pay well, but it’s also future-oriented due to its cutting-edge, forward-thinking advancements.
2. Product Management
From delivery to post-sales management, the role of a product manager is one of those small pieces of a puzzle that aren’t often noticed, but just as important. Often called the mini-CEOs, product managers are responsible for the launch and updating of product features.
Unlike other subjective job positions like a software engineer, a product manager’s job is not stated as constant with defined boundaries. This is particularly due to a variety of responsibilities from the industry sector, and businesses, to the product line itself. Each product manager may not have the same responsibilities, but the commonality is the primary function – drive in the introduction, development, and marketing of the products, along with the responsibility for the same.
The intensity of responsibility varies from small scale to large scale, where the product manager has to build from scratch in the former, devising the entire business workflow afresh. With great power comes great responsibility, and also greater pay. If wearing multiple hats in the field excites you, then you could consider a career in this direction.
3. Nursing/Healthcare
For years, there’s been a significant decline in the number of skilled nurses. And the pandemic has made it even worse. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected the patients who survived or succumbed to it but has also put a toll on the physical and mental health of the front-line workers.
Due to this, around one-third are thinking about leaving the profession. This shortage is what causes an increased demand for skilled healthcare workers. By 2027, the demand will increase to at least 500,000 more registered nurses.
To apply for this job, a bachelor of science degree or an associate’s degree in nursing is essential. You’d also need to pass a licensing exam to be a Registered Nurse (RN). If traveling is one of your hobbies, you can even become a travel nurse with lush pay (6 figures) and signing bonuses.
4. Information Technology
We all know the success and popularity of this field, one that continues to grow. What’s changed recently is the increase in remote work and smartphone development, exacerbating the demand for software and app developers.
Previously, this field required a bachelor of science degree, but in this new age of crash courses and time-sensitive courses, companies have begun to recruit people who have learned to code online.
So, if you’re leaning towards a career in technology, and have taken up STEM subjects, then consider taking coding classes. The Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts that the software development field will grow by 22% by the end of the decade. This converts to roughly 300,000 new jobs with an estimated 6-figure salary. If you’re introverted, this job may just be the perfect choice for you.
5. Robotics Engineer
We all know what a robot is, but what does it mean? Fun fact: robot comes from the Czech word ‘robota’ which means ‘forced labour’. They’re machines that are designed to carry out tasks that human beings cannot accomplish, particularly those that are lethal to human beings, for example exploring mines, defusing bombs, etc. It is an interdisciplinary branch between electrical and mechanical engineering, so if these topics tease your mind, this is an option to consider.
Living in an age manipulated by artificial intelligence and governed by information technology, robotics takes precedence. Companies in most, if not all sectors, will use robots to simplify certain work processes. Being a robotics specialist translates to designing hardware as well as software for robotics solutions. And this is something that most industries will require shortly – increasing the demand for robotics engineers.
We’d love to hear from you what your thoughts are on these careers and if you intend to take up any. Our career counselor is here if you need guidance.
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