<p>For one year now, I have been trying to balance the overwhelming amount of coursework associated with an engineering major with a sane lifestyle, so I was wondering if anyone has tips on how approach the classwork and test preparation.</p>
<p>My main problem is that I do not want to become a zombie and a dysfunctional person by burying my face in books all day long, but that seems to be the only route when you are taking 16+ credits, which is 4 or five classes. A typical day of classes for me ends around 3pm, then I usually go to the gym which uses up another 1.5 to 2 hrs in total, then there is a single homework which takes another two hours, by then the energy level is really low for me to do reading for more than one class.</p>
<p>Lately,I have had to cram extensively for exams. I don't know if I am not allocating my time right or what. </p>
<p>How do you usually divide your day up and go about studying? I am looking for a more efficient method without having to pull allnighters to do the work.</p>
<p>Well, first of all I think it depends on your study habits. Do you study after each class, or do you study more as an exam approaches? Most people choose the latter, as do I. They do well but probably wont retain the information longer than the exam date.</p>
<p>For me, I was dead tired everyday after class so I used weekends to review the material but then that wasn't even enough. So, I'm going to have to try reviewing the material covered in class each day. I also try to put due dates for homework a few days early so I have extra time to study for quizzes, or just have time to do other stuff.</p>
<p>My last term consisted of:</p>
<p>Engineering Physics C + 3hr Lab + 1hr Discussion
Organic Chemisty B + 4hr Lab + 1hr Discussion
Vector Calculus + 1hr Discussion
ME Statics + 1hr Discussion</p>
<p>My course plan is to graduate in 4 years, but I think the course load is ALOT which is why I'm considering extra quarters/year.</p>
<p>Your classes end at 3? What time do they start? Are you in class for the entire time in between? If not then do some homework in between classes. And when you do homework in the evenings do it with friends/classmates. Don't have any friends in your classes? Make some. Depending on the people you'll either get it done faster or slower, but either way it'll mean less "mental wear and tear" which seems to be a problem of yours. </p>
<p>The way I usually divided up the day was classes from 9 to either 3 or 5 depending on the day, with breaks in between that I used to do homework. Then I'd go do something not school related for a little while, like football or my girlfriend or something. It gave my brain some time to recuperate. Then I'd do homework from whenever I needed to. The best advice I can give is to do homework on the weekends whenever possible. I'm not saying stay in and study on saturday night (as far as I know I've never done any meaningful work on a saturday night...) but there is a lot of time on the weekend that you can use to do homework and take some pressure off of yourself for the following week.</p>
<p>The transition from first semester last year to second semester last year was harder than the transition from senior year of highschool to freshman year of college.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have breaks (usually an hour or less) between some classes, which I usually spend checking emails or doing whatever. I am doing well overall, but I want to make my habits more efficient.</p>
<p>I guess reviewing daily and tacking parts of the homework between classes is the key.</p>
<p>Think about it. If you do two hours worth of homework a day between classes you're saving two hours a day in the evening, or getting two hours more sleep. It adds up really fast, even if it's just an hour a day. Plus if you're far enough ahead you can do part of an assignment right after it's assigned and the material is still fresh in your head.</p>
<p>I rarely get to study during weekdays as I take clasess (upper level EE courses) and work part-time to support myself financially, which leaves me exhausted when I come home in the evening. As such, I only study during the weekends and in the weeks approaching midterms and finals I try to cram as much as possible. Probably not a good example to follow though.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation, Citan. But I'm not upper-div EE yet. The best thing I can do myself is to study or do homework at work, which is incredibly hard because I never feel like doing it. To the OP I would also suggest using the time in between classes and such to do homework or study. Its something I have to work on too because I like to allot a huge chunk of time where I can just study and do work without having to worry about anything else, but that time slot basically ended up being like 9pm to 2am everyday... not fun.
Also, pay full attention in class and take attentive notes so that you make more connections when you're reviewing the material, which you should do at least once a week if you can't manage to do it everyday.
Find your most productive hours and make sure you only use them for studying or homework.
I hate to say this but early in the semester/quarter find out which classes are most important. Let the others slide a little bit if you need to and pay attention to the important ones.
Make sure you don't just study all day, but also don't waste time... on youtube, and your computer.</p>
<p>In undergraduate, I managed the huge volume of engineering work (more so for me, since I transferred into engineering late) through monotonous yet effective routine.</p>
<p>I found that those simple and cliche technique that each proffessor tells you at the start of the class were highly effective. I would review/re-read my notes after class, do the required reading, start HW early and go to office hours when I had problems (NOT bugging the professor for freebie answers). During a week or two before an exam, I'd review the material for an hour or two and thus avoided the all-nighter cram fest.</p>
<p>Of course when I started having multiple finals on the same day and eventually turned 21, it all went to hell anyway.</p>
<p>So in short: routine, red bull and then the eventual reward of a happy hour.</p>
<p>I try to accomplish as much work as possible during the weekend, ie: catch up on all homework that has been assigned, even if it's not due until later in the week, and read ahead when necessary for the coming week. This makes the work week so much less stressful, and to me that is worth giving up a few free hours of my weekend.</p>
<p>For tests, see if your school has older tests on file to study from. I find this helpful for some classes more than others. The older tests give you a feel for what types of questions to expect on the exam (self confidence when taking an exam is worth a lot) and alert you to subject areas you may need to study more before taking the test.</p>
<p>Every person I know of at my college who gets A's puts in the time and works their butts off to do so, some more than others. Those that don't put in the time graduate with the minimum GPA. If you're going for a high GPA, you'll pretty much just have to accept that you will be giving up a lot of free time to get it, but i've found that there are certain things that make it easier such as what I mentioned above.</p>
<p>for my first semester, i have around like 18 credits so it was really stressful ending up failing a class.... afterwards i realized that lowering the credits might be a better way to go and started to take 14 credits. The result was much better and you have more social time. I can suggest you to lower down the amount of credits if you are not in a rush to graduate.</p>