<p>Hey, I am going to university as a freshmen and I am majoring in business. I am taking 5 relatively easy classes. I got about average SAT scores (1600 on all 3 exams) and had somewhat low grades and a low class rank. But I want to do much better in college. How much should I study? I was thinking 3 1/2 hours a day. Thoughts?</p>
<p>It depends entirely on your work load and the courses you’re taking. </p>
<p>This is one of my pet peeves.</p>
<p>I teach college. The rule I learned when I was a college student is thus: three hours outside of class for every one hour in class. It is the rule I tell my students.</p>
<p>So if you are taking five classes that are each three hours per week, that is 15 hours per week. You should be spending 45 extra hours outside of class to do homework, read the book, study, and review.</p>
<p>Now reality (why it is a pet peeve of mine): I know FEW if any students who study near that where I teach.</p>
<p>So my reality is, after I tell them the 3:1 ratio, is that if you are spending 15 hours per week outside of class on classes that are 15 hours per week in class, you are probably going to do okay. </p>
<p>Set up those 15 hours per week as drop-dead-I-must-study-and-do-homework-time. If you don’t need all those hours, you’ll have free time on Fridays and the weekends perhaps. You also can set up time where you force yourself to go to a tutoring center, instead of studying by yourself. Study groups help too.</p>
<p>Realize that college classes are meant to have lectures with overviews of a chapter, but few applications (unless you have engineering and are in junior or senior year). So you are the one to learn how to do the problems to study for the exam. If you are lucky, there will be study guides and reviews. If not, you are on your own.</p>
<p>For your 3.5 hours per day, assuming 5 days per week, that’s about average. If any class is tough, expect to set aside more time. If you can get away with 2 hours per day, that’s great, but don’t expect that to be true as you go along.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think this book is helpful:
How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719”>http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719</a></p>
<p>Like the above poster said, you have to think of school not just as 3 hours a week for a particular class lecture, but add 6 more for studying and homework. College is your full time job.</p>
<p>It really depends on the classes. Some classes will require a minimal amount of study time outside of class, while some will require a lot. A calculus or physics class is going to require significantly more study time than something like an introductory sociology class. </p>
<p>I usually set aside arbitrary blocks of study time throughout the week, and as I figure out the time commitment and such for each individual class, I’ll allocate portions of those blocks to specific classes and try to adhere fairly closely to my schedule. </p>
<p>I’ll second the book that @bopper recommended above. I just finished reading through it and I can safely say that I definitely feel much more prepared and confident. Cal Newport gives a ton of awesome tips with great examples to match. That book will truly teach you to work smart–not hard.</p>
<p>This all depends on you. I work well without any set study time, and most people would say that that’s a terrible plan, but (and this isn’t me tooting my own horn, it’s for the point) I got on the Dean’s list 2 out of my 3 quarters at school so far with pretty hard classes. I started off doing a bit too much studying (better more than less though) by doing a set 3 hours of studying, but it slowly morphed and shifted until some nights I honestly did less than an hour of work, and some I’m doing 5 hours of work. I’d say start with some set time to do your work, but let it naturally shift as you figure out what works for you.</p>