<p>If anyone could tell me, I'd just like to know how long the average <em>successful</em> college student spends studying or doing work outside of class per week (hours). Key word: successful. As of now I'm a biology major and will be taking two lab classes. I'm not sure how much extra time labs are normally...I'll have four classes total. </p>
<p>I'm not a speed learner, it takes me a while to absorb stuff if that helps :p. </p>
<p>I'd just like to know because I'm thinking about committing myself to a few outside activities and I'd just like to know how much time I have to budget...having never been in college I dunno how times work out :p.</p>
<p>I’m a science major, I generally do 18 creds each semester (4 classes + Labs) and i think i did pretty well freshmen year. Mon-Weds I had class 5 hours a day, Thurs about 3 hours, and no class Fridays! Mon-Weds is generally when I would do HW or study, I was done by 4pm so I would spend like 3-4 hours doing hw afterwards. I also went to club meetings Mon/Weds night and managed to see my friends around dinner, so not too much work. I had a job Thurs/Friday and then went out afterwards, so I wouldn’t do any work then. I had the weekends free to cram in any extra work, although I’d generally enjoy my Saturday and then cram stuff in on Sunday. </p>
<p>Also, even if you have Lab for 3 hours a day, you’ll only actually be in Lab for like half that, just read it ahead of time and know what you’re doing. I don’t think I ever sat through the entire lab!</p>
<p>I’m a science major.
I don’t know how you measure success but going to into junior year my gpa would be a 3.7 if I remained at my previous college.</p>
<p>Labs really do take up a lot of time. I would spend about 3 - 4 hours writing up a lab report each week. If you have two labs then it can obviously go up. Other than that I spent about a few hours studying each time I had an exam in a class (longer for midterms/finals). If I had a paper (depending on length) it could take any where from 2 hours to two days (not a consecutive 48 hours but it sure felt like it). </p>
<p>As far as readings, I skim. Readings only took me about 2 - 3 hours in a week. In a loaded week maybe 5 (For all classes combined, not per class). It would take me way longer if I read everything. Also, once you learn a professor’s test style, its easier to know what you should read and what you shouldn’t really bother with.</p>
<p>So I don’t know, it really varied for me. Some weeks I would only do 3 - 5 hours of work a week, while some weeks I could be doing well over 30 hours of work.</p>
<p>I took 14 credits my first college semester and found myself with way too much time. In my sophomore year I took about 18 credits, with some work intensive classes and was at class/work from 8am to 5pm and then worked until about 8pm or 9pm (worst. semester. ever).</p>