homework at yale

<p>how much hw do you guys have a night on average? i know at a lot of colleges, there isn't as much "hw" per se but more emphasis on midterms and finals. how does it work at yale?</p>

<p>good question
i wanna know too!!</p>

<p>depends on what courses you take. some classes have just readings, others problem sets, other essays, so it depends.</p>

<p>how about the math and science classes??</p>

<p>more than others lol. problems sets and lab reports are pretty time consuming.</p>

<p>^yesss!!!</p>

<p>but on average, do most yale classes have an emphasis on nightly hw or more on the big tests or equal? or are they all reallllly individualized that it’s impossible to generalize at all?</p>

<p>I’ll try to answer some of these questions, but again, it depends</p>

<p>Anyway, in terms of nightly homework, it depends on the class. There is definitely a lot of emphasis on midterms, finals, and papers. But you also need to keep up with the reading, which can be a lot. And there is other homework as well, that you need to do though it makes up a much smaller percentage of your grade. </p>

<p>Language classes: intro languages classes (depends on the language you are taking but often through level 4) meet every day. You should expect nightly homework for these classes with grammar exercises, writing, or speaking, probably about an hour a night. A lot have weekly quizzes and bigger midterms. </p>

<p>English/reading heavy classes: i haven’t taken many of these, but in literature and other reading classes, expect to read 80-150 pages for each class period (most meet twice a week). Also expect to spend a long time on papers, longer than you did in high school (or at least i spend way more time than i ever did in high school). </p>

<p>Science/math classes: expect to read about a chapter of the textbook for every class. There will be weekly problem sets that will probably take you a few hours to do, though the amount of time depends on the class. Science and math classes typically have 2 to 3 exams throughout the semester and then a final. This requires a lot of studying. Also, labs, which are only a half credit (except for a few really intense ones like p-chem and biochem, maybe a few others) but lab reports can take forever. (I like labs a lot, but they are a lot of work</p>

<p>There are plenty of courses that don’t fit into these three categories but most classes either have a lot of reading or a problem set (or both). The work is definitely manageable, though sometimes you will have to do work less than optimally on a problem set so that you can study for an important test in a different class.</p>

<p>Like goolsci said, it depends on the class. S/he basically covered it all so I won’t add. Only thing I will say is that there are some classes where you can get away without doing any homework, per se. Some lecture classes cover the materials on the test in lectures so readings aren’t completely necessary (or at least you can make them up later). Sections will usually cover the readings, but BSing is possible if you’re knowledgeable on the subject and went to lecture. Obviously this isn’t advised, but it is possible. (Although, I don’t think many classes are like this.)</p>

<p>Basically, how much homework a night you have depends on your work ethic. If you leave your lab report for the night before, it’s going to be a hell night (I promise you). Same with problem sets. And readings for that matter. But, if you balance it out throughout the week, it’ll still be plenty, but you’ll probably be less stressed.</p>

<p>Is that 100 pages of textbook or 100 pages of novels or otherwise smaller books?</p>

<p>100 pages of novels, textbooks, scholarly articles. Depends on the class. In English/Lit classes, then you’re most likely going to be reading about 50+ pages of a novel or of literary criticism, etc. (Although some English classes are more writing focused, so the reading is structured differently.)</p>

<p>In Poli Sci-type classes, it can be about 100 pages from a textbook, or 100 pages of articles/policy, etc. Or a mixture of both.</p>

<p>Hmmm… Well, 100 pages of, say, an economics textbook is pretty brutal. 5-6 lengthy articles about a book isn’t so bad, though.</p>

<p>Well, in Econ you will most likely not be reading 100 pages out of a textbook per week. In quantitative reasoning classes (and science classes) you’re probably covering about a chapter a week, which means about 25 pages or so of material. The work in these classes come from weekly problem sets, not reading. The problem sets, however, can be just as brutal, if not more so, than reading 100 pages in 2 days.</p>

<p>But it’s not so much that you rarely get to enjoy all that Yale has to offer besides academics, right?</p>

<p>^That is correct. Most people don’t only do schoolwork. In fact, I think the reason why weeks are so stressful is that people party hard on weekends and are very unproductive so they’re up for hours doing papers the night before it’s due. There are also a bunch of extracurriculars that keep you busy during the week. So, I guess this is what actually makes the workload seem unbearable. If you just do work, you’ll be bored and uptight, but you wouldn’t have too much work on any given day. (And by too much I mean any more than expected.)</p>

<p>^Sounds reasonable, especially since I wouldn’t be one of those who just parties all weekend. In fact, I’d rather partake in extracurriculars and also do work during the week, but save a good amount of work for the weekends so it never feels overwhelming. Is this doable? Also, for the record, are we talking about 5+ hours of homework per night?</p>