<p>Can any current students (please, not parents of students) describe what a typical day is on the block plan, including use of class time, time spent outside of class on assignments, research projects, etc.</p>
<p>Well it completely depends on the class you're taking to I'll just give you some examples of classes I've had so far.</p>
<p>In my current class, Biology of Vertebrates (intro bio course) we're in class from about 9-11:30 or 12 depending on how much material needs to be covered. Then we have lab almost every day from 1:30 until about 3 but again, it depends. Labs are very independent and you can spend as much time as you want on them (since they are usually dissections). We get about 30-40 pages of reading in the textbook per night plus we have tests and lab practicals to study for, so it is usually a good idea to review the study questions the professor gave us on the reading, as well as to review lab sheets. Homework generally takes up most of my evening and is definitely manageable. I had my last lab practical today and my final exam on Wednesday (it is cumulative) will require studying all of the study guide questions, previous tests, etc. as well as an additional take home question that is related to our zoo field trip we took last Friday. </p>
<p>6th block I took a political science class that was very different from the science classes I have taken. We had class from 12:30-3ish (depending on how much people had to say in the discussions) and then 100-150 pages of reading per night. We had a 10-15 page midterm paper due on the second Friday of the block and we got Thrusday off to write our papers. For the final, we had to write two 5 page papers (take home, all open note) relating to two of the books we read and once again got a day off to work on these.</p>
<p>These are only two examples of how classes can run on the block plan. Some run from 9-12 (this is generally how science classes seem to be) but others start at 9:15 or 9:30 and I even know of one class that starts at 1:30. Usually big long term assignments are assigned at the beginning of the block and due the last week so you have pretty much the whole block to complete them. Again, this is just my experience (I'm a freshman), so it may be completely different from others.</p>
<p>Thanks very much. This is very helpful!</p>