Homework and Studying

<p>How much homework a night/week do students at GT usually have? What about studying, how much time is spent studying? Also, is the homework that is given busy work, is it very beneficial? </p>

<p>Just trying to figure out how much free time a typical student has.</p>

<p>The volume and type of work is going to depend somewhat on the major and the number of hours you are taking, but you can expect about 2-3 hours of work a night on average for about a 15-17 credit hour load, counting studying. This is an average though; there are some nights you won’t have any, and then maybe you’ll work most of Sunday and do 4-6 hours of work. It is generally agreed that architecture students have the heaviest work load, and management majors have the lightest. I don’t feel that the homework is simply busy work. You really do learn a lot by doing the problem sets. Many professors assign “optional” homework. It is my recommendation that you do it.</p>

<p>The secret to Tech is good time management. If you don’t let things pile up, it really doesn’t feel as if you have an unreasonable amount of work.</p>

<p>What are some things I can do in an Engineering program to stay on top? I have heard that it is very difficult to get a good GPA at GT. I need some good pointers and tips. Anything about study groups, office hours?</p>

<p>What’s your major?</p>

<p>You’ll certainly have days where you’ll be up all night trying to get assignments/homework/studying done regardless of major.</p>

<p>@ nerdwantgum</p>

<ol>
<li>Go to every class/recitation regardless of whether professor takes attendance or not</li>
<li>Do all the work assigned whether it’s collected or not</li>
<li>Learn to take effective notes/form study groups</li>
</ol>

<p>Chemical engineering. I have heard that it is really hard to get good grades GT, especially the engineering program. </p>

<p>Are u a student at GT?</p>

<p>It doesn’t really matter if athlonx2 is Tech student or not because he has really solid advice. I would say going to class is the best thing you can do outside of studying before a test.</p>

<p>I don’t know what my friend did, but he’s Chem E. and has a 4.0 (he’s doing 3/2 program). However, he’s not exactly a freshmen, he went here (Emory) for like 3 years as a chem. major so that certainly helps. However, given that he just got there, one shouldn’t expect him to be getting a 4.0 necessarily. He never even did that here (in general, he didn’t even get close most semesters). Point is, it is possible.<br>
I have another friend about to go over to GT after being here for 2 years. He’s already started taking classes like CS 1371 (as of this semester), he has quite a solid A in CS 1371 (Matlab). They both complain about the work (they claim a lot of it is unnecessary once they actually know the material), but not the exams. Emory teaches one how to take difficult exams well (i.e., study a lot, and not necessarily do p-sets constantly. Reading load normally >>P-set load). I guess tech, you have to manage both in a sense. Either way, I wish I knew how they were breezing (well not breezing, but doing extremely well on them, completing ruing the curve) through the HW assignments given that they aren’t really used to it (okay, well I guess our Java class has those really long labs) and still ace the exam.<br>
athlonx2’s 1 and 2 sound about right. I see both of them do that.<br>
The two are really solid students, but they were not 4.0 students until getting there. Perhaps Tech lets them know that they have to work hard, so they do, while Emory tricks them into thinking “I don’t really have to this P-Set or anything for this class b/c it’s not graded)” so they never get around to it and don’t end up doing as well (not to mention profs. love lots of curveballs and unfair questions here to check for “creativity”). While they say the additional work at Tech is meaningless, it may not be. For stronger students better at managing time and getting them done, it could pay off significantly.</p>

<p>Thanks for the tips.</p>