How much to study in college

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>How much homework/studying do you typically do for each class each week in college? By studying/homework, I mean everything from reading the textbook and taking notes to doing small assignments to large papers to reviewing for an exam.</p>

<p>I'll be a music major, so I'm taking a lot of music classes, plus a few gen eds classes that my AP credits won't cover.</p>

<p>Classes I'd like to know information for:
Music- Theory, Music History, practicing for ensembles (I play clarinet; my major is piano, and that's a lot of practicing), and any other music classes you've taken
History- That's my other major, so how much typically for that? (I took 2 AP history classes in HS)
Econ- a gen ed class I will probably take
Poli Sci- may take this as a gen ed
Philosophy- this may cover a certain gen ed requirement too
Sharing info about other classes is helpful too.
Physics/Chem- take one of them for gen ed
I'll have APs to cover English, Math, Psych, Spanish hopefully too, etc. and several other gen eds not mentioned here (assuming I passed all the AP exams I took this year)
Remember- including all time spent on that classwork (textbook, assignments, papers, studying for tests, projects, etc.)</p>

<p>I know it's different from one person to another and from one college to another, but just some ideas would be helpful, so I could get a general idea about it.</p>

2

<p>I can’t comment on the music classes, but the general rule of thumb is for every hour in class, you should study an hour outside of it. Obviously, you probably won’t be doing this, but you should budget for it. Try Cal Newport’s shadow course method and you’ll likely do well in your classes.</p>

3

<p>Well I’m probably not a good example, but I study maybe an hour or so per week unless my friends drag me into the library, then I’ll do a good four hours and get everything done for the weeks ahead. Before tests I study an hour or so the night before but that’s about it. For finals I go all out and study 11-12 hours straight lol.</p>

4

<p>^(to both of the above posts, please answer back!)And by “study” you’re including everything for that class (papers, studying for tests, projects, assignments, reading textbook, etc.)?</p>

5

<p>Also, with the amount of studying/homework you do, are you getting all As with that much work? I know that varies by person to person and by college, but it would be helpful to hear the outcomes of these studying stories anyways. That’s the best way I can really get info and judge the amount of studying needed at this point.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I count all class work in that. I had papers like once every three weeks and that would take me like three hours max. I like to write papers in one block and just get it over with. I don’t read the textbook unless I knew we’d be tested on it.</p>

<p>I get As and Bs. I know if I studied more I could get straight As but I’m willing to compromise that for the insane amount of fun and memories I’ve had.</p>

7

<p>I get mostly As, but I don’t study hour per hour- I just made sure I had enough time in my schedule to be able to do so if my class turned out particularly hard.
For papers, I usually take an hour to write it, ditch it until the next day, edit it, and keep the cycle going until the day before the paper is due.<br>
I got a B in my English class because my professor didn’t like my opinions, and a B in acting for skipping a play.</p>

8

<p>This is the list of classes that I’m thinking of signing up for in my 1st semester of college, assuming that these classes are still available. All upperclassmen have already signed up for fall classes, and freshmen don’t get to until orientation in 9 weeks, right before classes start. Also, this is what I’m thinking about taking assuming that they let me taking slightly over the average amount. I’ll be starting a double degree program, so I figure I need to take a little above normal to finish on time (BA History & BM Piano Performance).</p>

<p>Also, my college goes by “course units” instead of credits…basically, you need about 33 course units for a Bachelor’s degree, so if a BA is like 132 credits or something, a course unit comes out to about 4 credits.</p>

<p>History 160- 1 course unit
Theory- 1 course unit
Econ (gen ed)- 1
gateway (freshman writing course)- 1
maybe a PE class, which are worth 0 course units but are required anyways
piano lessons- 0.5 course unit
clarinet lessons- 0.25
ensemble- 0.25</p>

<p>That would be 5 course units, where you should normally take 4. Music majors are allowed up to 5.5, but I’m not sure if that’s allowed or a good idea in the first semester. 5 would probably be enough. On top of the usual 4 or up to 5.5 for music, you can still take a PE class that is 0 course units (but fulfills some stupid requirement anyways).</p>

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<p>thanks for your replies again! (just read those after posting that^)</p>

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<p>I would go kind of light your first semester. You have 7 more semesters to take a heavy load and you have no way to know how the workload will affect you. College is completely different than high school.</p>

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<p>^True, but I do want to add that I took 5 AP classes senior year (with 2 regular classes, and practicing piano for college auditions) and managed all As except for one class (where the teacher told us that no one has ever gotten an A in it).</p>

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<p>AP classes may or may not be as hard as college - it’s not guaranteed. Mine were very easy and I got all As too. It’s just not worth getting super overwhelmed when you have so many more semesters to take a lot of classes, especially when you have to get accustomed to college life. You can if you want, but I’d take a semester to get adjusted.</p>

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<p>Ok I’ll think about that over the summer yet I guess</p>

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<p>Depending on the class, I might study very little or a lot. I took a Music Appreciation course last semester, and it was so incredibly easy that I didn’t have to study for it at all. All I really had to do was keep up with the readings, which were rather short. I could easily remember the terms used in the book. As for Calculus, I had to study a lot during the first 3 chapters covered, but then once we got to integrals, I understood that stuff quickly and therefore didn’t have to study as much as I did during the 1st 3 chapters. </p>

<p>Right now I’m taking an online child psychology course, and I don’t dedicate more than 5 hours a week to it. The syllabus recommends 18 hours per week of study, but I can read and take notes on the chapters in less time than that and remember a lot of stuff I’ve read. Apparently if the class interests me, I remember things better. </p>

<p>As for your theory class, it just depends on you. Are you taking a basic, intermediate, or advanced theory class? Some people get it immediately and don’t really need to study all that much (a girl I knew from high school is also a music major, and her sense of perfect pitch has allowed her to easily excel at oral theory tests while that part is more difficult for others), while others have to put in a lot of time into it. When I took a basic music theory class, though, I would usually do my theory homework the morning it was due and still get an A because a lot of it was easy stuff that I already knew from my HS choir director drilling music theory into the students’ heads. It wasn’t until the last 10% of the materials covered that I really had to study (like when we covered inversions and tone rows, for example). Those, I had to study like an hour and also play them on my keyboard to figure out how they would sound.</p>

15

<p>^I don’t know what theory course I’m taking yet. I’ve done a lot of college-level theory on my own in high school, so I’m hoping to take a placement test and get into at least theory II instead of I. Maybe even into Theory III. I’ve looked at the course descriptions online and I’ve covered the topics listed there for Theory I and II (except for one topic, which I’m going to try and look up something about it), however I don’t know how in depth they go with it compared to what I’ve done. So at this point, I have no idea what theory course I’m taking this fall.</p>

<p>With what I have taken, I’ve had theory tests, which I haven’t had to study much for and have earned top scores on them. So far, I have found theory interesting and very easy.</p>

<p>The topics for both Theory I and II are: Theory I- basic materials of music, scales, intervals, primary & secondary chords, elementary voice-leading, basic harmonic analysis, related aural and keyboard skills instruction is integrated with written work in a laboratory situation. Theory II- Secondary dominants, more advanced voice-leading, harmonic analysis, elementary formal analysis, related aural and keyboard skills instruction is integrated with written work in a laboratory situation. </p>

<p>I’ve studied all of that stuff (and will review it) in depth I think except for voice leading really, and I have some information about that in a book around here I could look at, plus use the internet.</p>

<p>I’ve self-taught some theory on my own…some was with my old piano teacher but she really didn’t know a lot of it and I ended up teaching myself a good amount of it and taking theory exams through Minnesota Music Teachers Association (MMTA) and using those books to prepare, which included aural skills. Also, I’ve done theory classes at piano camp in the past 4 summers, which included ear training things too. 1 and 2-voice dictation included. Ear training included recognizing major, minor, augmented, & diminished chords, major, minor, and modal scales, all major and minor intervals and all aug/dim intervals up to a 13th I think plus tritones…</p>

16

<p>Music students and art related people generally study much more than pretty much all other majors (including engineering). People in fine arts, design, architecture, and music study at least 8 hours for one class and the top students study 12 for a single class (they pretty much live in the studio).</p>