Question for Students

[Kaligraphic]

There is a slight discrepency here in definitions of "studying." When I heard the amount of studying college students claimed to do, I assumed, like you seem to, that study meant actively reviewing material for an exam, and I found that almost incredible. However, I have found that most people operate with a definition closer to "doing work that in some way relates to a class." Thus, all time spent writing papers or reading is considered study.

Also, purely out of curiosity, what level of school do you refer to?

AS, AA, and a bit more.

I typically spent maybe half an hour to an hour a week, total, including everything. Ninety minutes on the real high end with multiple papers due. My programming exercises were done in-class (sometimes before the prof finished explaining how to make them work), I would look up at the clock, see 30 or 40 minutes to class, write a 5-10 page paper and get to class on time (it's easier in the humanities than the sciences), I would skip low-point-value homework and would do faster extra credit assignments so that I could skip more... Yeah, I suppose I wasn't exactly a model student, but I still got mostly As and was recommended for honors programs more than once.

[uc pseudonym]

I typically spent maybe half an hour to an hour a week, total, including everything. Ninety minutes on the real high end with multiple papers due. My programming exercises were done in-class (sometimes before the prof finished explaining how to make them work), I would look up at the clock, see 30 or 40 minutes to class, write a 5-10 page paper and get to class on time (it's easier in the humanities than the sciences), I would skip low-point-value homework and would do faster extra credit assignments so that I could skip more... Yeah, I suppose I wasn't exactly a model student,

Oh, you aren't a bad example in one way: time management. Anything that can be done in-class without causing harm to that class (one where, for example, your professor is not a good communicator) is good. And extra credit is also a good idea, though I have yet to hear of a class (for, obviously, my institution and field of studies) that offers enough to make any real difference.

Also, it is critical to be able to determine what is actually important. For example, I couldn't get out of one Orientation class, and it recently had an assignment relating to obscure parts of MLA documentation. If you wanted to spend a great deal of time looking up the specific locations of periods, you could probably get a perfect score on the assignment. But in all honesty, it will barely matter in such an easy class and the information itself won't benefit you. So I didn't bother nitpicking and turned it in.

[Eriana]

That's probably a good point.

[~Natsumi Lam~]

One week I remember in particular I put in 12 hours in ONE DAY! I studied from two in the afternoon until two in the morning. . .

haha welcome to my every day study ... haha. Got to love CS!!

~NL~

[TurkishMonky]

I usually put in 3 hours on sunday afternoons and 3 hours on tuesday afternoons to do Calc II homework, and 3-4 hrs saturdays in to do papers for my other classes (when i have to write for them) so 9? hrs (all my computer classes' homework i get done in class)

[Rashiir]

I probably did about 3 hours a week of work outside of class in high school. In college now, I generally study (read/write/do problems) on average about 4-5 hours a day. When I shopped Arabic, the work for that class alone was 3-4 hours a day. It really depends on what sort of classes you take, whether they're languages, or reading intensive, writing intensive, problem-set based, or what have you.

[Mi-Ru-Me]

I put about an hour a day for calculos homework since I get a new lesson and homework every day. other then that I study about 30 minutes before a test.

[Linksquest]

Not as much time as i should! T.T Less than 3 hours?