<p>With freshmen class registration coming up relatively soon, I was wondering if any current duke students could share their opinion as to whether its better to try to spread classes out as much as possible throughout the week or to try to clump classes together, having some days of the week with 4-5 classes and others with just maybe 1 or 2. I think I can see the theoretical advantages of both but anyone with actual experience please share your opinion. Thankss</p>
<p>OK, I know that the 1st two things I'm gonna say aren't what you asked for, but quick scheduling-related advice anyway:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>8:30s are sometimes inevitable, but NEVER schedule yourself a small 8:30 class. Most of the times, small classes have different sections at various times - go for a later one. My freshman year, I had 8:30s both semesters. 2nd was CONSIDERABLY more bearable than 1st. The only reason was that the 1st semester class was a 10 person Spanish class, so I had to be on time (if not early), participate extensively, speak Spanish, and come to class completely prepared. Unfortunately, that last part led to several "Crap, I have a lot of work to do before 8:30" all-nighters. The 2nd semester class was a 300+ person lecture class, so I could afford to show up 10 minutes late without being noticed, I never had any work due at 8:30 AM, and all I had to do during class was take notes that I could go over later once I was more awake. Never again will I take a small 8:30 class.</p></li>
<li><p>On the same note, people feel different ways about this, but I'd also advise against any classes after 5:40. I had a 4:25-5:40 class 1st semester that wasn't that bad (I usually just went straight to dinner), but then 2nd semester I had a 6:15-7:05 section that I really, really resented. Because of that section, I missed a lot of opportunities to do work with a group I'm involved with, had to grab dinner at really awkward times (either at 5:30 or 7:15, while most of my friends went around 6), and my Mondays felt like they dragged on FOREVER. By 6:15 I just wanted to be DONE WITH CLASS so I could concentrate on extracurriculars, relaxing, or studying! </p></li>
<li><p>Unfortunately, figuring out what type of schedule works best for you is really something that you may need a year of experience in order to figure out. For example, I can't sit down and focus right away - I need a good 30 minutes or so once I sit down in the library to get into a studying "groove," get my e-mail checking out of the way, settle down, and really involve myself in my work. I didn't know that about myself until this past year, so I intentionally scheduled my classes this semester so that I cram all of my classes into certain days and have reeeeeeeeeeally long stretches of time to study - that way, it gives me time to settle into the library and I can concentrate on my studies for hours on end, instead of studying for an hour, then getting up to go to class, then sitting down to study again for 45 minutes, etc....which does NOT work for me.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In the meantime, I would suggest a little experiment. If you have a free day, devote 3 hours to reading a book. It doesn't have to be a textbook or anything, just...a book you want to read. At the start of that 3 hours, were you able to sit down right away, get immediately involved in the book, and read without stopping for a good length of time? Then I would suggest spreading out your classes so you don't go insane with really heavy class days, which will lend itself to shorter study breaks of maybe 1-1.5 hours throughout the day. Did you go to read the book, but get up after 10 minutes for a glass of water, then sit down again, realize you wanted some food, and keep finding small distractions until you were finally able to concentrate after about 30-45 minutes? Then I would suggest clumping classes together and leaving yourself really, really long blocks of time to study at other points during the week - you'll appreciate that during midterm time when you need to sit down and study and it takes you a while to get into it.</p>
<p>I hope that helps...I sort of just thought of the test now, and I don't even know if it'll help you at all, but yeah. It's really about personal study habits more than anything else.</p>
<p>Personally I prefer spreading them out. First semester I didn't spread them out and had 20 minutes between some classes to make the transit between East Campus and West Campus to get to class on time, and was much more hurried than I should have needed to be given my class load. It's also nice to not need to carry 3 classes worth of textbooks in your backpack at any one time.</p>
<p>My most important advice would be to simply leave time for lunch in the middle of the day, and don't schedule classes for the entire 10am-2pm block if you can avoid it. It's doable, but its not deail.</p>
<p>Yeah...no offense, Joe, but this is where individual preferences are going to have to come into play. Basically, my entire schedule takes place between 10 AM and 2 PM (except for 1 class from 2:50-4:05 and one once-a-week that's 3:05-5:35) because that's the time frame during which I wanted all of my classes - I didn't want anything too early or too late. I really like getting all of my classes over with at once, and I never had to bring a textbook to any class I was in...I just used 1 notebook for all of my classes. On the contrary, I found myself having to carry around more textbooks when my classes were spread out, because I'd have random one-or-two-hour blocks during which I'd go to the library, so I wanted to have my books on me so I could study.</p>
<p>Yea, I mean scheduling preference is completely a personal choice, everyone is different. I like being done as early as possible, so i schedule most of mine towards the beginning of the day. One thing I HIGHLY RECOMMEND is to NOT take an 8:30/8:45 language or other small class if possible. Despite what you think your current sleeping habits are, they will change and being drilled by a professor in a small class at 8:30 in the morning (esp. if you're taking chinese cough cough) is not a pleasant experience. Also, try to get off as early as possible on Friday. It's nice when you need to leave for breaks/vacations. I lucked out this coming semester with all my classes being 10am-1pm Mon-Thurs with one random 3-4 outlier class and only one 45 min class on Friday that finishes at 2pm. And this was all while overloading credits. Pretty sweet deal.</p>
<p>PS if any of you are interested in theology/religion, Religion 101 or 102 are both great courses both taught by fantastic profs. The nice thing is neither is too difficult and its a good intro to the religion dept at Duke if that is something that you are looking into studying at all.</p>
<p>Yeah-- I mean, I always end up with some sort of gorgeous schedule (last semester's was nice, but not my usual beautiful time frames)</p>
<p>I second anyone who avoids small early classes. Personally, I'm going to be a jr and I've never had a class before 10:05 at Duke-- I tried last semester and hated it since it was an 8 person high level/intense English class so I switched immediately. Some people love it, esp. if they're naturally early risers or go to bed really early, but I'm not one of those people-- in fact, I tend to need more sleep than average to perform to my fullest, and I know I'd get distracted at night. There's always stuff due, always a participation component of a final day- people love it, but before 10am is too rough for me personally. </p>
<p>I like to be entirely done by 4pm, though in most cases it's being done by 2:30-- so I also manage to cram everything in between those hours, and it's incredibly managable. I try to avoid having three back to back (to back) classes since I hate rushing around and I hate either sitting in a class starving or bringing food to eat in class... but its possible to fit classes into a smaller time frame and still have an hour or so between them. Freshman year one block I had every day a class at 10:05 or 10:20 and then a class at 2:50 or 3:05 -- this was great because I was able to get into a perfect routine of doing work in the middle of the day, but it also allowed me to sometimes lose complete focus. That's why for me, it's great to maybe have an hour between classes, because I can run an errand, have a meal, finish some work, but still not completely lose focus. Again-- it all depends on the people, and what works for me definitely wouldn't work for everyone.</p>
<p>For me-- I don't typically have to lug anything heavy to class, like textbooks or a laptop or anything, so I'm fine with tossing some notebooks and readings into a bag and heading off for the day. </p>
<p>Also- it's sort of hard to not have any classes between 10 and 2, but not impossible.</p>
<p>And surprisingly, I've found that evening classes aren't so bad. Honestly-- sometimes taking a class that's 2-3 hrs one night a week is great because you get a break and it's good to be entirely done in one day. I never minded that class... but again, it has to be with a great prof and something you're really interested in, because otherwise, it might suck.</p>
<p>One more thing about small 8:30s -- attendance. In the language classes, there are always attendance requirements - for the one I took 1st semester (which met twice a week), we were allowed 2 absences. After that, major points came off your final grade - I think it was a half letter grade for every absence or something crazy like that. I slept through 2 classes completely by accident - I just didn't hear my alarm and my roommate wasn't there to yell at me and get me up. After those 2 absences, I was so pressured to make it to every class that I had to set 5 alarms on my phone and put my alarm clock on extra-loud - not to mention the fact that I actually had nightmares about sleeping through Spanish class. Aghhhh, bad experience - very bad experience. With larger 8:30s (Econ, Chem, Bio, etc.), they never take attendance - so if you sleep through an occasional class or two, it's not a tragedy. With the smaller classes, it can become...a nightmare. Quite literally.</p>
<p>Heh, I second the "don't worry about attendance for large 8:30 lectures." I seriously stopped going to Tuesday Econ 51D lectures completely. I used the time to get up anyways and do homework for other classes. Worked out for me. :)</p>
<p>Is it okay to have a lab early in the morning...or would that just be awful? As of right now I have my chem 21 lab from 8:30 to 11:30.</p>
<p>Freshman year my roommate LOVED having labs at that time slot, since you just wake up and have it done early and not need to worry about it all day.</p>
<p>Yeah-- the reason why I can't take early classes is the attendance issue. Honestly.</p>
<p>for anyone that has taken EGR 10...even though it says that the exact room has been yet to be determined, I could assume that it will be in the engineering section of campus, right? I'm only asking this because in my schedule I have 10 minutes to get from chem 21 lab in Gross to EGR 10...is that even doable?</p>
<p>the chem lab will probably never last the whole time. you will probably have to find things to do with your hour break or so</p>
<p>okay...I have another question. I think I remember hearing something like the first 2 weeks of classes or sort of like a trial period and that it's the drop/add period. So, as a current pratt student, say I realized that I have a major interest in a trinity major, and I end up not liking my engineering courses, can I drop those engineering courses and switch into trinity then, or would I have to stay in engineering for the entire year? It's not that I'm immediatly shooting down engineering, I just want to know what my options are. Thanks!</p>
<p>My understanding is that you have to officially stay in Pratt for the whole year, but you don't actually have to take any Pratt classes, so you're effectively a less-constrained (no freshman seminar) Trinity student.</p>
<p>okay...thanks!</p>
<p>Right--
You can't technically switch to Trinity until the end of the year, but if you try your Pratt classes and don't like them (definitely give them a test run though!), then enroll in Trinity classes.</p>
<p>Ooh, okay, one last word on the destructive power of 8:30s, though.
This was my schedule 1st semester (of frosh year):
<a href="http://pic11.picturetrail.com/VOL362/1585668/8016145/110276669.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://pic11.picturetrail.com/VOL362/1585668/8016145/110276669.jpg</a></p>
<p>By all accounts an amazing schedule, right? Awesome weekend, classes spaced out nicely, most days start relatively late...also, the BAA class was pointless so I never went, leaving me a really nice gap of time to nap during the day (which I almost ALWAYS did).</p>
<p>But when I look back on that semester, all I think of is how miserable I was waking up for those early-morning, 10-person 8:30 mandatory-attendance classes. Like, that's seriously the 1st thing that comes to mind. Not my 11:10-on-Friday-until-4:30-on-Monday weekend. Not how few classes I had. That's it. So, yeah....do with that what you will. And this is coming from a girl who used to wake up at 5:30 AM during junior high/the beginning of high school. College SO changes your body clock.</p>
<p>So... whats the attendance situation on a 30 person Math class? Because an 8:45 MWF definately bums me out... I may do everything in my power to avoid it... which basically means avoiding the class all together.</p>
<p>I honestly wouldn't do it. I actually had a MWF 8:45 math scheduled for the fall and dropped it because I knew how miserable I'd be. </p>
<p>Honestly, you won't want to go ever. And if you don't, unless you are a math genius, it could be very difficult to do well. The one kid I knew who never went to class (Math 103) actually failed. And you just won't ever want to go...I promise you. If you have to schedule at 8:30 do a lecture.</p>