<p>So I've heard oh so many times that for every 1 hour in class you must study for 2 hours, I've also heard that the studing is extremly intense if you want to get excellent grades. i mean for example say someone studies their butt off in high school and gets great grades , that being according to those people who made those remarks about college, college is nothing like highschoool , high school is a joke compared to college , that being how would one make the switchover , i mean if one already studies intensely , they would have to double it am i correct , how would one handle it ? Or is it really not that bad.</p>
<p>It's not that bad. I didn't study in high school, and in my first year of university, I only studied for maybe 5 out of 11 total courses, and the time I spent on studying ranged from 10 minutes to 10 hours, either on the day of or before the midterm/exam.</p>
<p>However, unlike most people, I acutally LISTEN in class. Sitting there and taking notes doesn't do you any good if you don't absorb the information while you take notes. I take it what I hear, analyze the information, evaluate whether I should write it down or not, and repeat. This is also why people often question my notes because I've had courses with 0-4 pages of notes to 10-15 pages.</p>
<p>^^^
Yeah I think steevee hit the nail on the head. You will be surprised how many people are trying to write notes so fast and are trying to capture everything the teacher says that they end up with a heap of notes. But if you ask them at the end of class to explain what the teacher was talking about they would have a very hard time. Listening and the general difficulty of a course will determine how much you have to study.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I haven't started college yet so take my advice with a grain of salt. I am just commenting on what I have observed.</p>
<p>yah 2 hours/class is bull. for my intro to econ course, there's 2 1.5 hour classes in 1 week; i dont go to either. but we have online homework that's due friday at 5 PM every week, so on friday monring, i read the book chapter (about 45 min), and do the homework (45 min) and look! i just saved myself 1.5 hours! of coures, not every class is like this ,but it's always am ix.</p>
<p>About notes, my experience in HS (mostly lecture-based classes) is that many professors don't give you time to "digest", analyze info, then write it. I'm of the scribble as quickly as possible variety, while being moderately discriminating, depending on how fast the professor talks. A lot of kids who primarily "listen" during lecture forget to write down and ultimately lose a lot of important details. After class, I review my notes and condense and summarize. Reviewing notes after class and summarizing is an easy way to divide studying into manageable chunks, too.</p>
<p>Steevee hit it on the nail I think. I believe that's why a lot of people struggle at first as well. I mean if you got an average professor and you actually listen to what the professor says then there's no reason why you should be doing intense studying. the only studying i did throughout the year was before midterms and finals. and the only kind of work i did for my classes were the homework assignments. that's it. why take notes down if you then have to re-read your notes in hopes of understanding what the professor was simply summing up for you? just listen in class and take notes of important things that will be required for a test or paper. you can even apply this in some science/math based classes as well. everyone is different in the way they absorb information but it isn't all that hard to do I think. just LISTEN. that's key. and it never hurts to be curious either, by that i mean ask questions about whatever the professor is lecturing on if you feel it will help you better understand the topic.</p>
<p>If you are an engineer, yes</p>
<p>thanks, I think the whole really listning thing is a great idea , i've also heard of those proffesors who are foreign and are barely understandable . what do you do about them? Have any of you guys ever had any?</p>
<p>"So I've heard oh so many times that for every 1 hour in class you must study for 2 hours, I've also heard that the studing is extremly intense if you want to get excellent grades."</p>
<p>Not so much. I got straight A's last year -- my freshman year -- and I certainly did NOT spend two hours studying for every hour spent in the lecture hall! </p>
<p>I did all of my assigned readings, I did all of my assignments to the best of my ability, and I read over my notes a crapload of times whenever a test came up. That's it. </p>
<p>The most important things, for me, are to prepare well for your lectures (make sure to do your assigned readings in advance) and take really good, thorough notes at your lectures. The words that come out of your professor's mouth are golden.</p>
<p>This is part question, part answer. I've heard it;s also true that you should research you course and lecturer/professor because some professors lecture a lot but the ultimate testing comes from the books and vice-versa. So knowing your course and teacher is invaluable. Has this been the case for you current college-goers?</p>
<p>College studying is about how you study, not how much you study. As an engineering major, I find the best way to prepare for my exams is to do practice problems. It could take me more than two hours a day--or less than two hours. I usually study a lot for exams on the last few days. Although I would not have had to if I had not procrastinate.</p>
<p>it all depends. for my ochem class, i studied like 4 hours for every 1 hour of lecture, but for my intro to psych class, i studied like an hour total for the exam (so like 20 min for every hour of lecture). </p>
<p>if the class is hard, yes you will study your bottom off, but if its a blowoff class, or the tests aren't that difficult, then you wont need to study that much at all. </p>
<p>i went to all my chemistry/biology classes, and did alright in them, but i skipped all my like econ/other classes all the time, and aced them easily. so it all depends</p>
<p>truth is most schools are not that demanding, nor are most majors. Just look at how many people say they do fine without going to class ore putting in much time/effort. So the rule of thumb doesn't always apply. But if you're majoring in the sciences or engineering it likely will. Same with time-intensive classes like foreign language, art, etc.</p>
<p>I am going to major in biology or something very similar , I reading all of this gives me a breather, and a girl came into my class today and she played a division 1 college sport , and she does fine in fact she is going for physical therapy, similar to my career goal, although mine is ... just a bit harder ( physician)</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>In my opinion, any answer that doesn't include some sort of "it depends" is wrong.</p>
<p>Like many have already noted, it all depends on the class difficulty, professor, level of interest in the subject matter, etc.</p>
<p>The physics class I took last semester [freshman year] was my best ever. The professor was wonderful, and always asked questions in class for more than half the time. This really motivated me to seriously study the material before coming to class so I could answer as many questions as I could and have a thorough understanding of the material. I took notes but only read through once each time in preparation for midterms. My best study tool was practice - all homework problems, past exam questions, and problems from the textbook.</p>
<p>In another math/physics class I took last semester - my hardest so far [diff eq, bessel, fourier, legendre, etc...], I struggled during the semester. Our final exam was a 24-hr self-scheduled exam. My prof advised to go over all my homework problems. So I spent about 5 days redoing every single problem I had been assigned, making sure I understood how to solve it properly...</p>
<p>So yeah, for quantitative reasoning classes such as math and physics, practice is my best study tool. I also took art and music. Art was hard work and putting in the hours. Music was a little practice and more creative work.</p>
<p>But I'll be taking a history class next semester, so I guess my notes will be more important then.</p>
<p>if you're premed or engineering, you will study alot.</p>
<p>excessive studying is really bad since it destroys the potential for creativity.</p>
<p>don't study more than u would like to. most of the great minds throughout history probably LIKED studying. now, some of these were really narrow in the choice of their studies.</p>