I’m late to this thread, but it’s been a topic of some discussion at our house this year. D22 attends a BS with a block schedule, and is comparing some college acceptances with different term formats.
In a normal year, students at her BS take 3 classes per semester. When a student spends 1.5 hours in class, then another hour or two on homework, the next day very little time is needed for review - the material tends to stick, even after the class is over. Last year, D’s school modified to a trimester format with 2 classes per trimester (trying to de-densify). D absolutely hated it. The classes were shorter and there were fewer of them, but no additional homework was assigned. They missed important info or just couldn’t dive deeply enough. Her one AP test was not great - and it wasn’t from lack of commitment or lack of studying.
This year, her BS is back to the normal block schedule, and the students - and teachers - are happy about it! And now, D is comparing college schedules that include semesters, trimesters, and quarters, so we did a little research. Interestingly, at the college level, the prevailing advice is “don’t worry about it.” The professors know how much material they need to cover and they handle it fine.
So what happened at D’s school last year? My guess is that the BS teachers did NOT know how to pace their classes differently - or just didn’t have time to rewrite all their lesson plans while navigating the new Zoom format and dealing with the much higher expectations for one-on-one time with their advisees or parential communications. Last year was a learning year (for the teachers) and presumably they would have paced things better had the trimesters continued this year.
I would recommend new BS students and families not get too hung up on this - a modular or block system can and does work when the teachers are experienced working on that schedule. And such a schedule offers a lot of perks for motivated students. For example, D has 5 math credits and 6 science credits, and it was easy to make that happen within the normal schedule (no overscheduling, has normal credits for other subjects). D is not ruling out the colleges on a trimester schedule, despite her poor opinion of her junior year experience.