Foo - Determining study hours.

Sorry if the title of this thread sounds confusing, but that's the best way that I can put it right now.

I started school about a month ago, and all of my classes are starting to become demanding. Since I've been working for the last several months, I'm trying to get my head back into the swing of things, but this is proving difficult. I don't have a good sense of what to study when, largely because I can't accurately gauge the potential difficulty of my courses (except for one, which I've already begun studying for).

To help me with this problem, I'm compiling a chart of how many hours I should be studying per week for each of my courses. Using this, I will re-organize my schedule so that I can properly account for study hours and then determine how many leisure hours I should have available. I know that the standard is to account two hours per every hour of lecture/class, but some courses are more difficult than others and require more attention than that. For instance, it was not uncommon to study up to 3.5 hours per day for my Linear Algebra course last year, which I still did very poorly in and had to drop from it (largely due to timing).

Would accounting for a "difficulty factor" be useful in accurately gauging how much time I need for a specific course? I was thinking that the number of study hours would be double the lecture time, multiplied by a difficulty to study time ratio. The difficulty factor would be between 1 and 5.

Thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry, but that post makes my brain hurt.

(Just as well I'm not in school any more)

Since many of us have already gone through many of the courses you have already gone through, I'd suggest posting your classes and let some of us give you our opinion on how hard the class may or may not have been.

Conversely - spend the time it takes you to think up this strategy, and start reading! If there are assignments etc coming due and you can complete them/get good grades, you are studying enough. If you have no clue what the ()*(* they are talking about, study more.

My strategy is this.

Put in as many hours as necessary to do well. Leisure time is a luxury that I only allow myself when I have finished studying. Also, get a calendar, write in all your assignments, readings and test/papers. Check things off when they are done and move to the next thing. Make sure you are ready for the next day before you play. Also, if there is a big paper/project, plan time to work on it every day.

engineering student here

biggest thing you can do is to get eight hours of sleep exactly everyday, your schedule will open up, you will begin to feel better through the day and you can actually concentrate on your classes. NO oversleeping

I studied until i think i got it.

engineering student here

biggest thing you can do is to get eight hours of sleep exactly everyday, your schedule will open up, you will begin to feel better through the day and you can actually concentrate on your classes. NO oversleeping

I learned in my Psych class last semester that 8 hrs of sleep is the average. The amount of sleep needed will vary by individual. More importantly, get up at the same time everyday, regardless of when you went to bed.

As far as time management for studying, I can't help. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.

I always prioritize by deadline dates, Midterm dates. lol

I learned in my Psych class last semester that 8 hrs of sleep is the average. The amount of sleep needed will vary by individual. More importantly, get up at the same time everyday, regardless of when you went to bed.

As far as time management for studying, I can't help. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.

What that intro psych class didn't seem to teach you is about natural sleep cycles. Create one, and it doesn't matter all that much how many hours it is, so long as the body gets rest.

When I was an architecture student at an accredited 5-year program, 4 hours of sleep a night was about what I averaged during the school year, save the two weeks prior to finals. The last two weeks were spent in studio getting projects done...models, drawings, sketches, renderings and studying for finals in the remaining classes. I was in school on weekends, holidays and days off. I also worked part-time over 24 hours a week. I took a few hours for Thanksgiving dinner with my family but was back at school right afterward. Same on Friday after Thanksgiving. Graduated with my Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors from Woodbury University in Burbank.

If there is anything I learned its this:
-Sleep deprivation sucks big time.

-How much blood, sweat and tears you put into your education is equal the rewards you can reap.

-A college education, regardless of major, is about time management...and damage control. Assess what you are working on, when it is due, and what you need to do to get there...when you are running out of time, it comes down to getting what you need to get done at a minimum...everything else is icing.

- "Pretty pictures are okay, but where's the architecture?" meaning, don't just make it look like you know what you are doing, understand what you are doing and get to the substance of the project your are working on.

- Get into study groups...and actually study.

- Get the syllabus and know what's coming up and when, that way you can be prepared for it and budget your time accordingly.

- Make use of office hours, speak to the instructor or TA when you have a problem or don't understand a subject.

- Be original, think. Ask questions.

- Learn how write and write well. Write an outline and follow it. Ask for peer review (we called it a "desk crit").

- Learn how to work in groups. At some point you will work in groups. Sometimes you will be a chief, sometimes you're going to be a warrior...deal with it.

- Learn how to speak in public. Practice it out loud. At some point you will be doing group presentations and someone will need to speak for the group.

- Have fun...its college. You're there to learn but don't forget about the experience of college, either.

Well????

engineering student here

biggest thing you can do is to get eight hours of sleep exactly everyday, your schedule will open up, you will begin to feel better through the day and you can actually concentrate on your classes. NO oversleeping

I discovered that sleeping MORE than six hours can become problematic for me.

The classes that I'm taking:

Engineering Design VI (Precursor to Senior Design Project; not challenging)
Applied Data Structures and Algorithms (Data Structures and Algorithms II)
Digital System Design (Hardware design using VHDL)
Modeling and Simulation (Creating messaging networks using OMNET++/C++)
Engineering Economics

Engineering Design VI - Not familiar. You says its easy.
Applied Data Structures and Algorithms (Data Structures and Algorithms II) - Could be anywhere from tough to a monster depending on teacher.
Digital System Design (Hardware design using VHDL) - Very time consuming.
Modeling and Simulation (Creating messaging networks using OMNET++/C++) - Never had a class like this, but it sounds time consuming.
Engineering Economics - Fairly easy, just do the homework.


Sounds like you got a pretty touch schedule lined up.

Thanks for getting back to me, Termite.

Engineering Design is a series of courses that build on each other to supplement different core courses throughout the student's engineering education. This one, as well as the next one, concentrate on our Senior Design project, which is a (typically) large-scale project that is meanet to showcase all of what we have learned throughout our time at Stevens.

I already have an idea in mind that I hope to get the chance to implement or at least assist in. Combining two of my favorite things in the world can't be any good. :)

Modeling and Simulation is also a course that is offered to all Engineering students, but is major specific and very different from each other. The concept is the same, in that the class concentrates on communicating different components of a network or a system together using messaging or some other medium. For our Computer Engineering cirriculum, the class is much more useful for something like an operating system or a motherboard, in that it establishes the network of components in the system as well as the messaging medium between them.

At first, it was something of an abstraction, but I remember a very large component of one of my previous companies being an in-house messaging system for all of their application suites. VERY complex.

Thanks for getting back to me, Termite.

Engineering Design is a series of courses that build on each other to supplement different core courses throughout the student's engineering education. This one, as well as the next one, concentrate on our Senior Design project, which is a (typically) large-scale project that is meanet to showcase all of what we have learned throughout our time at Stevens.

I already have an idea in mind that I hope to get the chance to implement or at least assist in. Combining two of my favorite things in the world can't be any good. :)

We had a senior design project, similar to how you describe. We didn't have any kind of special class that targeted senior design project, or just 'design' in general. Sounds like some good courses though.

I figure 4 hrs a week/credit hour.

I figure 4 hrs a week/credit hour.

Hmm. I've heard of 20 credit hour per semester, that's 80 hours per week of studying. I guess it varies.

Hmm. I've heard of 20 credit hour per semester, that's 80 hours per week of studying. I guess it varies.

Yep, last semester, I carried a total of 21 credit hours, 18 class hours and a 3 credit hour research project, so I was a busy middle aged student. :p

Then I had my Admin stuff here, and my riding, and some life with the wife. ;) Interesting times. :D