<p>Well so as I have learned most UC's are quarter, which in a way is delightful to know, but at the same time scares the hell out of me, because its quicker, is quarters you guys would say just academics without all the filler, i.e. teachers taking 20 minutes to ask how student weekends went, telling jokes & watching random movies, etc.</p>
<p>any tips to prepare for quarter system?</p>
<p>I am interested in this question as well. It’s one of the major things I’m really worried about when picking UC vs CSU. I’m hoping to transfer for Fall 2012.</p>
<p>I’ve always been on quarter so I prefer it. Going to a semester system is going to be really weird. quarter isn’t THAT bad. You can still get lazy to be honest, lol.</p>
<p>I prefer the quarter system. Knowing that classes will end soon is motivating for me. In a semester system, sometimes it just feel like the classes and just drag on and on…</p>
<p>im feeling the say way about semester being a drag, i get burnt out. glad to see im not the only one.</p>
<p>idk I feel burnt out on quarter system sometimes; you’re constantly having to get ready for the next midterm, paper, presentation, etc. It can get tiring.</p>
<p>id rather stay on my toes than get outta swing every three weeks to a month because their are just that many days to slack off and get off track in the duration.</p>
<p>but to each his own. i would think at like berkeley semesters would be more useful being the intensity.</p>
<p>I went to both quarter system and semester system CC’s and I prefer quarter system because your tests cover less material. Like sgtbrecht was saying, semester systems tend to drag on forever. I’m usually dead by the last month. The only thing though is that you can’t slack off on quarter systems. On semester systems if you slack off there’s still time to get your act together and improve your grade.</p>
<p>I hate the semester system! Figures I have two more years of it :/</p>
<p>@O12345, reasonable.</p>
<p>hmm are you at a UC? less material huh? hmm 
that certainly is a +10 in itself.</p>
<p>Less material huh…that is somewhat true actually. I’ve only gone to CCC but in both systems, I’ve found semester finals to be way more stressful. You have to study everything from 3-4 months back. But in a quarter system, it’s not as bad. It depends on the professor but if the final is comprehensive, then yeah semester system is worse. Wish Cal was in a quarter system…</p>
<p>@ UCkittychen</p>
<p>Nope. I’m transferring this fall to Berkeley :/</p>
<p>@ sgtbrecht</p>
<p>Me too. Me too…</p>
<p>I like quarter better, mainly because you shotgun through all those courses within 10 weeks and everything is still fresh in your mind. Semesters are drawn out and usually I get tired by the time I reach the end, but you cover material more thoroughly because you have so much time. But because the semester system feels so drawn out, I’ve gotten lower grades plenty of times, since I got lazy and etc. I’m learning to adjust and fix it now though.</p>
<p>I prefer semester because I’m so used to it.</p>
<p>I prefer the quarter system but I suppose it can’t be a fair judgement because I’ve never had the semester system in college.</p>
<p>Pros:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Academic/intellectual diversity. You’ll get exposed to more areas of study and will have more opportunities to explore new disciplines because you end up taking more classes.</p></li>
<li><p>Brisk pace. It’s fast but it’s not impossible and to be honest a lot of people exaggerate how fast it is. I remember my first quarter upper class men would give their dooms day advice “It’s the quarter system man, you better be able to keep up with it or you’ll fail all your classes.” -__- Do your work and don’t slack and you’ll be fine.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>-Amount of knowledge. Not to say semester people can’t learn as much but it’s pretty astounding how much you learn from so many different areas of study in just three quarters. That’s only 9 months and roughly 30 weeks of school but the pace of study ensures you learn a **** ton of material.</p>
<ul>
<li>You get a late late late summer. You don’t start school until the very end of summer and the beginning of fall. You get another few weeks of summer vacation after semester people are already back in school.</li>
</ul>
<p>Cons:</p>
<p>-Semester people start finishing up school around week 7 and you have to envy them from seeing the constant flow of “ZOMG SUMMER!” Facebook updates.</p>
<p>I like the semester system since I’ve never done a quarter system before (though some of my classes did work similarly to a quarter, like my French 1A class, which met during the first half of spring semester), but I think my brain would work better with the quarter system. It may go faster than the semester system, but for some reason, I’m terrible at remembering information that spans out throughout a semester period. Like if I learned something in biology at the beginning of the semester, chances are, I’ll end up forgetting it by the end of the semester.</p>
<p>I hate semester classes when the teacher gets way too far into detail and then throws a comprehensive final at you in the end, lol.</p>
<p>You guys have to remember that semesters usually consist of 4-5 exams while quarters only 2-3 exams.</p>
<p>It is easier to bring your grade up in a semester system. If you bomb one test on the quarter system, you don’t get that chance.</p>
<p>Also exams on the quarter are shorter… Remember that classes are 50 minutes long (MWF). That means exams will be very short and the cost of the exam will be very high.</p>
<p>A 50 minutes exam being worth 40-50% of your grade. You need to get use to that.</p>
<p>I’ve only ever done semesters and thinking about it just now, many of my lectures could have been condensed to 10-12 weeks without much difficulty. I’ve had my share of classes that cover new material every single class from beginning to end. But most of them go offtrack at some point. </p>
<p>Just last semester I took a Marine Biology class in which most of our lectures didn’t start until class was 20-30 minutes in, not to mention there were days in the latter 8 weeks when we attended just for attendance points. </p>
<p>One other thing about the semester system is that its pros and cons depend on several things. I think one of the more important ones is your schedule. When I was in class Monday-Thursday, the last 6 weeks felt like an eternity. This last semester I crammed everything into Mondays and Wednesdays, and the 16 weeks felt more like 12. I’m not sure if that’s possible once in a UC, let alone in a quarter-system UC.</p>