Rule of thumb is you’re supposed to spend three hours outside of class for every hour spent in class. This is supposed to apply whether you’re a full time student or a part time student.
What people actually do probably varies, ranging from minimal time outside of class to multiple hours, depending on the class, the student’s study habits, and other factors.
It’s really hard to compare because what might take you 1 hour might take me 2 hours and vice versa.
Right now, I probably spend about 10-12 hours a week on my 400-level French class, 8-10 on my 300-level writing class, and 6-10 on my 200-level writing class (depending on if there’s a project due or not. The other writing class is more stable than this one). I can say that a great chuck of my study time consists of reading and writing. All I do is read and write responses/answer questions about the reading. It takes longer if the readings are particularly hard and I have to re-read parts of them.
And also, regarding full-time vs part-time, I notice that I tend to spend the same amount of time studying for heavier semester as I do lighter semesters but that I distribute my time differently. I once had 20 credit hours and zipped through my work quicker than I do now with 12 credits because I had more of it. There wasn’t any time to overthink it or quadruple check it whereas now I take that extra hour to re-read the chapter or revise my intro paragraph for the seventh time. I still feel that I roughly put about 30 hours of work into each semester (maybe closer to 40 on some weeks, just like now) but that I didn’t dilly dally or overthink the work as much.
Is this just me, or does anyone else notice this weird kind of distribution?
ETA: When I took my capstone course last semester and was writing my undergrad thesis, there were some weeks where I worked maybe 5 hours on it and a few where I worked all day on the weekends and before and after class every day, so it really can fluctuate.
Depends on the class. Systems Physiology had me studying at every waking moment that I wasn’t eating or getting drunk. In my Communications class, I aced the exams by cramming 3 weeks of information in a 1 hour session before the exam, never even reviewing the information I learned in lecture on the day I learned it.
It really depends on the class and also studying vs doing assignments. An English 101 class might take an hour or two to write a paper, but they’re really isn’t any “Studying” necessary.
STEM classes generally have exam based grading, so there is going to be a lot more time spent “Studying” but don’t have much in the way of homework, so there aren’t any assignments.
Other classes may have a lot of reading, time consuming, but not difficult material.