So I am a sophomore student in college studying engineering and Literally have an exam once or twice a week every WEEK! I literally cant study anything we do in any class except the class that I am going to have the test on. This destroyed my social life completely and ruins every weekend for me. Any advices how to manage this work load, whats the best way to study and even how to make the time to have a social life? Anything will help! thanks for your time!
How many hours per day are you studying? What is your expectation for hours? You have to study on the weekend in college.
You just have to find a schedule that works for you and cut out time sucks that neither add to your social life or academics. Work when you work, play when you play.
Don’t multitask. Put phone away when studying. Set an alarm and study for an hour then take a ten minute break. Repeat at least once.
Don’t skip problem sets for classes you don’t have a test in soon or you will be perpetually behind.
Definitely try to stay ahead in all of your classes. If you have an hour and are walking from one class to another, go straight to the second class and sit there and study. On Saturdays wake up, have a quick breakfast, and study until dinner time. Take Saturday evening off. Sunday, do homework from when you wake up until dinner time, then have dinner then study after dinner. Between class, study. During the week, go to class and study. If there are “extra problems” in a course that you find difficult, do them and where you have trouble go to the professor’s office hours and ask for help. Take short breaks from time to time, but don’t take long breaks because YOU ARE IN UNIVERSITY NOW!
If you can get ahead in all of your classes, it will be easier to keep up. You don’t want to spend the entire academic year falling a bit behind everywhere. You also need to get enough sleep. Your priorities are going to class, sleep, and study, and study some more. Welcome to university. Welcome to engineering. It will get easier after you graduate.
Shrug. My kids both studied a ton in college. Even Friday nights. They went to the library for a couple hours before going out. Studied several hours both days of the weekend. The one at the lower ranked school graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Other one never failed a class (accomplishment at her school) and graduated on time in a tough major.
How many classes are you taking?
Is “one or two exams every week” a fact or an exaggeration? As a senior engineering student, I have weeks where it feels overwhelming – two exams on the same day this past week – but neither do I have an exam EVERY week.
Yep, engineering school is tough, plain and simple. If you study smart, though, you should still have time to do some fun things. But I know it can be frustrating to see how much other kids are partying! I remember that feeling well.
@MistaKev Engineering students do not have any type of social life usually. Typically, the number one objective is sleep. Accept that and move on. You can have a social life after you graduate. I have no idea how it good it is for engineering but you could look at Quizlet, an online study help site. Also maybe Khan Academy. Never hesitate to go for tutoring. Old school we used study help study guides for preparing for exams. So for example, we gave our engineering student son, our study guides. The one I am looking at right now is Schaum Outlines, Signals and Systems. Modern day, I know he follows online examples of how to do problems perhaps on YouTube? I will ask him. It is important that you put the time in and do practice problems. Make sure you have all your supplies for each exam. Nothing worse than not having a calculator. Look forward to down time and fun over winter break. Good luck. It is worth the short term pain.
(@gatorwithdreams What to expect)
@gearmom, I don’t know if I would go that far. The social life of my engineering classmates and me wasn’t that bad! And we went to UT-Austin, a rigorous school. We just made sure to stay on top of our courses and get help as soon as we needed it.
@MaineLonghorn My social life was nothing like the social life of other students in other majors. You will know when you have a breather to do things. But IME, it was a night out here and there. Some kids in other majors would start partying on Thursday night and continue right through Sunday. For DS, he has a double major CE and Japanese. Lots of weekends spent working rather than chilling. I had a good number of all nighters (and so does he). Especially when programming is involved. Now that was back in the dark ages for me when a computer cost the same as a year at college and C+ was new. But for an upper level engineering major, I simply did not have much time for extras AND maintain a good GPA. What you could do is multitask your social opportunities and fitness, for example, join a volleyball club which would provide exercise and social opportunities. My DS is on a ballroom dancing team (I know that is not typical), but it is a twofer. As a junior, he no longer has the time to actually compete on weekends just practice.
My dd did a dual EE/CS degree. Her social life was engineering. She did go to the tutors daily to keep up with her coursework. At one point, she knew more than the tutors, and was being asked to become a tutor.
Now, she’s making bank and her partying dorm mates are struggling to make ends meet.
Welcome to college!
I though Undergrad was bad, then grad school nearly wiped me out. I spent so much time with my grad colleagues that it was our social life! We rotated potluck dinners so that no one would miss a meal.
thats why I said I have no social Life I pretty much study every free time I have
@bodangles I am taking 17 credits and all of the class are intro to major classes, no GNE.Yes I was exaggerating when I said I had and exam or two every week not mentioning homework’s’ and quizzes every week.
17 credits is a lot. Depending upon schedule and financial constraints, can you take some classes over the summer and reduce your load during the regular school year?
Okay, so if none of them are easier classes, 17 credits might be a bit much. You could look into dropping one class if you could make it up later, like over the summer.
We understand that you feel busy, but if you want accurate advice on your situation, please provide accurate background. (That is, don’t exaggerate and say you are experiencing something that you are not.)
Otherwise…that might just be college. I mentioned that I had two exams on the same day this past week. I also had two quizzes, a problem set, an oral report, a written report, and research work. I had to skip both of my extracurriculars that week, as well as say no to something else that I really should’ve gone to. And now I’m catching up on difficult group work that’s due Monday morning.
Did it suck? Yes. Did I complain about it? Yes. But did I get the work done? You bet.
You may think this odd, but I think you are lucky. These regular assessments force you to keep up with the material and give you an early wake up call if you haven’t mastered an important concept. I don’t doubt it feels awful, but the alternative is much worse.
@bodangles Wait I am really sorry, What I was trying to say was that I wasn’t Exaggerating, I was typing so fast and I didn’t proof read, so Yes I do have exam or 2 every week next to the homeworks and 3 labs and quizzes.
This is pretty much what your high school teachers were trying to tell you last year.
17 credits of engineering classes is too much. Ideally you wouldn’t have more than 12-14 credits of engineering and perhaps one gen ed to balance things out.
My advice would be to drop a class. Choose based on the sequencing - which class is offered again in the Spring? Drop that one.
@MistaKev If you do drop a class, make sure it doesn’t change your status from full time to part time or jeopardize any scholarship requirements. My d is going through the same thing right now as a senior. She is taking a heavy load of engineering courses this semester to make up for the classes that weren’t offered while she studied abroad last semester. It’s brutal. The good news is that she just accepted a great job offer for when she graduates in May! Hang in there!
Huh? Our S19 and D21 both have at least one to two exams each week in high school. AP classes have more than one quiz/test each week. Just last week, S19 had nine tests total in his five classes. Just keep up with your work. I agree with @gardenstategal. If you have lots of exams, they serve as a check to make sure you are understanding the material. Not a bad thing!