Systems with time dependent couplings which interpolate between constant values and involve critical points are expected to display universal features. Recently, holographic methods have been used to understand some key aspects of such quantum quenches, which have applications to many areas of physics. This has led to insight into key aspects of well known scaling behavior for slow quenches which cross or approach critical points, viz. Kibble-Zurek scaling. In the opposite regime of fast quench, holographic methods have uncovered new scaling laws which have been subsequently shown to hold in general quantum field theories. This talk will review some of these exciting developments.