My mom keeps saying to me 4-5 hours per class and 4 units equals 4-5 hours EVERY day. That seems a bit ridiculous when my friend who took Biology generally no homework unless you don’t finish it in class, mainly studying. She got C+ only because she was lazy and irresponsible and didn’t study when she was supposed to (she’s always like that despite that she cares about her grades). I’m not sure who to listen to. I have a straight A friend who goes to community colleges so I could ask but he hasn’t taken any yet.
So how much homework is there in a community college, not a regular college like my mom goes to (she goes to Pomona college or she calls it Cal Poly Pomona). Is there a difference?
In my senior year, I can take 1 or 3 courses but 3 courses sounds like death if it’s 4-5 hours per class every single freaking day like my mom says. Thanks!
Pomona College: http://www.pomona.edu/. A private liberal arts college located in Claremont, CA.
Cal Poly Pomona: http://www.cpp.edu/. A public polytechnic university located in Pomona, California.
Compared to high school, in college you typically spend less time in class and more time studying or doing labs or papers. My D is a college freshman. Her Spanish class meets for 50 minutes 4 days/week. Her Chemistry class meets for 50 minutes 3 days/week plus once a week she has a 3 hr 45 minute lab. Her Economics class meets for 75 minutes twice a week. Her freshman seminar meets for 75 minutes twice a week. On average she’s only in class for about 3 hours per day except for lab day.
Learn organizational and time management skills in high school and you’ll do fine in college.
I’m curious about how you went from asking about Ivies to asking about community colleges in two days. If you’re this worried about it as a freshman, don’t worry, you’ll do fine.
@JustOneDad Well, that’s very obvious. I mean the exact amount that you have to do and leave it up to me to decide. For example, is it the usual 20 math problems (one being a short essay word problem) every other day and a 10 easy math problems on those other days with quizzes and tests every 2-4 weeks for math? That’s what I mean by exact. I’m strong in math but I do not know the exact amount of homework for Multivariable Calculus (will be taking AP Calc BC in 11th and have nothing to take in math unless I go to community college). Also I really like Japanese so Intermediate Japanese 3 would be fun, so would General Physics (with a good teacher).
@Corinthian Most people I’ve heard say that college is more about studying and taking notes during lectures and study those, etc. etc. and do your medium amount of homework regularly (there’s also a medium (2-3, which I still consider a lot) amount of homework in half of the high schools, but for some schools it’s minimum of 6-7 hours). I guess in your college it less. All the community colleges in Anaheim, CA are exactly 4 hours per week (2 hours twice). IS there a difference between college and community college work or does it depend by location? What’s the homework amount in exact terms?
@bodangles I don’t see how challenging community college courses in senior year would sound degrading. I see your point, though, but I could save some money without risks (according to my friend) but more likely I will just go to the 4 year college or some college within top 2000 immediately after high school because some colleges offer lower transfer rates compared to acceptance rates so that’s a risk I don’t want. My high school only has regular Physics and no math after AP Calc BC (of course not, well except AP Stats but idk if I really want that and a bunch of regular courses I’m not interested in that will lower my GPA) as well as no Japanese 3 or 4. I will have taken all the APs (15) I could handle and enjoy by senior year and all that’s offered left is AP Psychology (accidentally bought a review book so might as well self-study for the test), AP Environmental Science (self-study if I want to, but I don’t), AP Stats, and APUSH (the 2.5 hour minimum-guantee death course in my online school that apparently everyone takes), and AP Human Geo (could self study, but doesn’t count as credit in half the universities I go to).
I’m not a freshman but I have to plan my courses and some of the ones I planned in 12th have to go to 11th and 10th and it switches around etc. etc.
You aren’t going to get the kind of answer you are looking for because it doesn’t exist. There is no set number of hours of homework or number of problems or number of pages. College courses vary greatly. A typical college student might take 5 courses as a full time load, so that should give you an idea of what the workload is. How many hours per week does your calc BC class take you? If you are starting from the beginning of calculus with the AB material, then you are covering a years worth of college math in a year, so you can get some idea of how much work the next course might be, though it will probably also be a little harder as you get more advanced.
Well, at the CC my brother goes to the total amount of unita you take is supposed to equal how many hours you should study in a week. Not sure if the same principle applies here though.
I am currently a sophomore in high school but I am a dual enrollment student taking classes at CC. On average, I spend 3-8 hours per class per week (I take these classes online). You could spend less time than this but by sending a little more time I have over a 98 percent in each of my classes. Also remember this changes greatly by what school you attend, what courses you take, and who your professor is. Hope this helped.
I depends on things like your major, what type of student you are, your time management skills, the work environment in which you do the homework, and which professors you get.
Colleges will expect you to spend 2 to 3 hours in homework for each class period. However, this will barely begin to cover it if you attend a top college (like Pomona, HarveyMudd, or CalTech), whereas this should give you a pretty good shot at an A in community college. (Cal Poly Pomona is in-between these two extremes). The pace is a bit less intense at a CC and the course is less in-depth. However, compared to a typical AP course in high school, think about it this way: your AP class lasts 9-10 months and you have 5 periods a week. In college, you’ll cover the same amount of material in 4 months, with 2 periods a week. The rest of the work is on you - you have to be independent and learn how to work on your own. This is why colleges really like students who show they can handle DE classes: there’s no better predictor of college success than - surprise!- success in college.
If you’ve handled a full courseload of honors and AP classes, taking 3 CC classes shouldn’t be a problem.
Beware of General Physics unless you’ve taken Honors Physics/AP Phys1-2 + Physics C. General Physics will be a review of Physics C but it’ll likely go much faster and have a much more self-selected group of students. Because a student who takes Physics C is likely to be a STEM major, that class would “count”, so you’re better off taking General Physics as ready as you can. You can of course also take a good Physics class at your HS and complement it with Coursera/EdX over the summer.
There is no “exact” answer, every college, class, and professor is different. I took a math class over the summer and it was all done at home, class was only used for tests.
Beware taking all the APs… Don’t be afraid of taking some lower level classes if you’re interested in them.
Also, what grade are you in? Being good at freshmen math in in way indicates you’ll be good at calculus…
If you’re this worried about it as a freshman, don’t worry, you’ll do fine.