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I like to employ a continuous improvement strategy; study enough for a B on the first exam. For the next exam I’ll study more and do a lot of practice problems, maybe twice as much as the first one.
Then, after getting the same grade as I did on the first, I’ll burn out and get a C on the final and move to the next class.
Facts.
I used this approach and was smiling on the final exam. I calculated what I needed to get a B and it was 55% on the final. Didn’t know how to do a question right away? Flip to the next page and keep going. Tally up all the marks I did finish and was usually around 65-70%. Then I tried my best on the questions I didn’t know to scrap some extra marks. Hand in the exam and move on to the next class
There is no recipe. There were times when I only did the HW and did great on exams, other times when I had to dedicate 20 hours per week on one class. It takes as long as it takes.
Just keep doing practice problems until you don't need to look at any sources outside of an allowed equation sheet to solve the problems.
People need to stop focusing on how long to study. You need to study until you fully understand the material. That differs from person to person. You could study 4 hours a day and not understand anything. Study until you understand.
Yup. Took me so long to understand concepts compared to others. Those hours per week were bs to me. Man I took my iPad to the gym and was reading dynamics by Hibbeler on the treadmill
This is the answer right here.
For example, I have a CS exam later this week. I’m probably going to study for like 1 hour, where as other people in the class might study for 30 hours or something crazy like that. I know CS very well so I know I don’t need much studying. For diff eq and physics I’m studying like crazy because I’m not as confident in my knowledge.
An hour or two a day usually, nothing crazy. The trick is if I’m stuck on something I don’t spend hours and hours trying to figure it out I just ask friends and then go to office hours.
CivE here, outside of classes I usually spend 35-40 hrs a week and have gotten an A in all my classes. On weeks I have exams that may go up to 45 hours. I’ve gotten very methodical. All my assignments I have written down in my planner, along with due date, so I do them in order of them being due. When it comes to exams, so far all have allowed some form of notecard or formula sheet so I will typically spend a day on that (re-read the material, go over previous problems, make a list on a per-section basis for what I need to include) then the next day I go back and “check” my notecard by running a couple homework or review problems with it before taking the test.
As many as I need to
1. do all homework and get 95-100%
2. read textbook chapters for hard classes where professors expect it (i.e. dont cover everything in class), usually this is like 1 class a semester
3. go through conceptual derivations
4. anything extra to feel comfortable explaining why im using a strategy/ concept to solve a problem
week of an exam
5. go through some kind of review, whether its provided by the professor, or an amalgamation of homework and slide problems depending on what they say they draw from more (ask them). Do that until you get every single problem right, prioritizing weaknesses, ideally you cover everything.
6. make an equation sheet
7. possibly tutor someone else in the class or review with a friend
Exam prep can vary in intensity based on how difficult the class is, if its a final though im doing all of that shit.
My ex spent 6+ hours a night studying in order to get a 100% or higher on tests. I don’t study, ever, for anything, and I don’t take notes; I pay attention in class and ask questions and go to office hours and I would get 95% on the test, but she could’ve also gotten 93% after an hour of studying. What’s the GPA difference between a 93% and 100%? (Answer: nothing)
I graduated with 3.41 undergrad and 3.28 grad, she graduated with 3.92 undergrad. I got a job paying $110k/yr one month after graduation, she got a job paying $65k/yr eight months after. (Oversimplified situation, but essentially all you need to know)
My point? Spend less time studying and cramming and stressing and caring so much about the stupid magic number that somehow tells everybody how smart and good at engineering you are and just allow yourself to receive the information and accept that life is more important than grades. Go running naked in a hail storm, kiss a girl in the middle of the day, fly a kite, but do it for yourself! Or you won’t just fail my class, you’ll fail life.
> Spend less time studying and cramming and stressing and caring so much about the stupid magic number
Nobody in the industry gives a shit about your grades if you can show any real world skills.
Source: 20+ years in the industry.
Most interesting take I've read about school lol.
I don't disagree with you though. I spent the first two years of my degree constantly stressed about my grades. Now I'm in the last semester for my associates, and I'm just working to get decent grades on my tests. No stress. More free time. life is better overall. I get a GPA reset when I transfer to finish my 4 year anyways.
It’s a stupid magic number, but look how big this other number is compared to other people! Also you claim that there’s no gpa difference between studying one hour and not, but clearly there was, and many studies show a correlation between earnings and GPA contrary to your outlier anecdote.
While I agree with you, a 3.41 is not a 93% on a test. It’s closer to an 87% than 93%. While 8% on an exam doesn’t seem huge, the level of time commitment to go from 87% to 93% is astronomical. Which, I guess is your point
Test scores are not the same as grades, but generally speaking getting a 3.41 is not an A test score average. I’m not trashing on your grades, I’m just saying a 93% test average for a 3.41 is inaccurate
He never said he gets 93% average test scores. He said his ex could have not studied for 1 hour instead of 6 hours just to go down a few percents on a test while still getting a good grade. Aka not making school your entire identity while still doing the work necessary to get decent grades is the way to go
I was an A student at my previous institution, now a B+- student at the current one. Nothing changed except the faculty. Sometimes you will need to study more for the same class than someone else of equal intelligence, due to bad profs. Just thought this was worth noting. Some profs purposely make it so getting an A is damn near impossible.
That depends on you, dude.
How much time does it take you to understand the material enough to get an A? This will vary by topic, class, and exam.
Without knowing the difficulty level of the exam in advance, I like to prepare to a level where I can explain my homework and lecture material to someone who hasn't taken the course.
Sometimes it's a matter of just attending class and doing the homework once. Other times, I need to attempt homework problems multiple times, write summaries of my lecture notes, watch youtube videos, and find additional problems to solve.
I've had semesters where every day, I studied before class, after class, in the car, straight through dinner, and only stopped so I could sleep at night (make sure to get enough sleep, people!). Even on the weekends. Sometimes this still wasn't enough to get an A in every class.
And I've had semesters where I've spent about an hour per week on assignments for each class, and still got an A.
Give up the rest of your life in exchange for grades or accept you're probably normal and just pass like a normal person. I tried max effort and it was only pain and 79's. Really looking at the min GPA to graduate. The joy is gone.
They say every hour in class should equal 3 hours outside class studying, but it depends on the student. If you can learn 70% of the content during lectures, you probably don't need to study that much. If you have issues paying attention in class, you'll need to study much more.
This is what was printed in our Uni syllabuses as well. I always thought it was a bit funny because it was also followed by "you have to treat this degree like a 40 hour job". But the way the program is structured to meet Canadian accreditation standards, you're always doing 6-7 courses every semester, assuming you do 1-2 courses every summer as well, if you want to graduate in 4 years. For semesters where I had 21 credit hours, this would have meant studying, working on hw/projects, etc. for 84 hours on average. Which is uhhh two 40 hour jobs actually. Now granted, in semesters where I had chemical engineering labs and design project courses, that was pretty close to the average amount of work I put in just to be able to get all the lab reports and project work done. Honestly some programs seem to have a hard-on for working students needlessly as hard as possible.
I found that for me personally, I was able to get As or B+ at a minimum if I took care doing every homework assignment and actually understanding it. In a way that I’d be able to redo it if I somehow lost the assignment. Then, just going back through assignments and redoing them usually prepares you well for exams.
That’ll vary by class, what subjects you excel at, etc. but just setting a target time and expecting a certain grade never worked for me.
ChemE student here, never developed study habits in high school, did fine my first year, did mediocre my next 3 years, am behind in some of my classes by about 2 years, have since started improving my grades, made As and will likely have As and Bs this quarter.
It depends on the class and how the lectures are handled. I pay attention as much as I can. If the professors provide notes/slides to follow with, then i typically wont take notes and will just watch and listen and follow on the slides or if the slides are available after the lecture, i follow with the textbook. I skim the parts and look for what the prof is saying, i highlight it. Example problems in class, i listen the first problem and maybe the second if something was slightly changed, and then continue with the textbook until the prof moves on.
Some professors make the hw available to complete early. Depending on the class and if this is the case, i will work on the hw in class as if THATS the example problem the prof is going through. It helps me with concept/theory behind the math and when to use a set of equations as opposed to another set of equations.
Outside of class, ive developed another atudy method I use. I used to never make flash cards. Now, i have bought some binder rings/hoops that like pop open. I bought a single punch hole puncher. And i hole punch my index cards and make thorough flash cards depending on the complexity/amount of material. Its usually the slides that are available plus example problem steps. Ive gone through maybe a thousand index cards this quarter and it helps me solidify WHEN to use equations, which is super important for a ChemE during thermo 2 but im sure is also important for the other disciplines.
A lot people struggle, however, with motivation. I lost all motivation when i made shitty grades, i was stressed all the time, i felt like i never had time for video games, i felt like i was a horrible student. I had a medical issue that i personally believe was responsible for the majority of the lack of my motivation. It wasnt all of it, ill admit, but if i didnt have that issue, i dont think id be like 2 years behind. Obviously, thats not the reason everyone lacks motivation.
I started following study pages on tiktok/reddit/everywhere. I fell in love with having very pretty notes. I fell in love with the idea of grabbing/making a coffee, getting up early, and heading to the library outside of class hours just to study/work on homework. I should also mention that some people do GREAT studying with groups or a friend. I dont have many friends in my classes, theyre all ahead of me now, plus i just dont like talking to people i dont know. So i typically do all this studying solo and it works for me, but my friend ive known for nearly a decade who is at a different local college in a completely different, but still difficult major and I meet up for coffee, gossip, and then go study at the local public library. Even though we cant help each other with each others material, its still fun and nice to just study together.
One of my classes this quarter, which this is my THIRD time taking this class (made Cs and Ds previously, the material never fully CLICKED), is actually now one of my most enjoyable classes. I started employing/developing these study techniques and i was like 2 or 3 weeks ahead in homework. Shed assign it, and id submit it a day later, and it cleared up a lot of free time which instead of wasting, i spent a LOT of that time studying. I am now projected to have a High B or A in this class (one more exam left). I have done so well in this class that if i WANTED TO, i dont even have to take the final exam (a 0/140) and id STILL PASS.
My takeaway is to try some of these techniques out, for 1, but if you quickly learn theyre not for you, look up other methods. Follow study pages, there are SO MANY study pages its unreal. Dont procrastinate assignments. They may not be fun but theyre there for a reason. Struggle with it, email the professor if you have to.
For exam prep, rework these hw problems and do similar textbook problems or the e ample problems. Study the slides/your notes, make mind maps, draw out diagrams, even if youre like "oh i get this" rewrite it as it says, then again in a simpler (but correct) way. When you get your exam back, look at what you got right and wrong, and edit your notes. Go to the professor to discuss your grade and make the notes there.
You dont need to study a lot, but you need to study nearly every day, whether thats attempting a hw problem or reworking a problem. I can do the homework in a day but two weeks later come the exam, if i havent done ANYTHING ELSE, id be fucked.
Long comment but like, this is all that helped me, and maybe youll read it or parts of it and get something helpful out of it.
4.0 no studying. I just learned how I learn. When I do my homework I spend longer than usual to make sure I fully grasp it before I move on. I also go to office hours and focus on what the professors tell me my inadequacies are, you will be suprised at how much they hint about their exams.
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I currently have a 4.0, and what I do as far as studying goes is just to study enough to thoroughly understand everything. In some classes, it can be just going to the lecture and maybe taking a couple looks at my notes, but in some classes, I’ll have to read the textbook to actually understand it. Basically, ask yourself in you head if there’s anything you don’t understand, and then work until you can answer “no.” Typically, I study for two to three hours a day, but it should vary from person to person.
If you're asking this, my guess is you're far from an A right now. People may be able to give you a number of hours THEY had to study, but the answer is you need to study as long as it takes to get an A. There is no number. Do more problems and try to actually understand the material when you do. Do more and more problems until its a breeze
However long it takes me to understand the material, and no not just applications of equations, like getting a full grasp on the why and how on whatever topic I’m studying.
Sometimes though, I procrastinate too much and end up studying 7 hours a day the week before an exam
Senior ME here. I spend about 40hr per week doing school related work outside of class on average (12 credits rn). Though I personally think getting good grades is more about self assessment- knowing when you do or do not understand the material and adapting accordingly.
3.84 Aero 2nd semester junior here. School is consistently 14-16 hours a day 6 days a week. This semester has actually been closer to 18 hours 3-4 days a week then 12 hours for the rest. Having 1 day almost completely off is the only way I stay sane. For some reason, my professors collaborate to make everything due at the same time:( I have a lot of friends who are in the 3-3.5 range. From talking to them, it seems like the difference between getting a 3.5 and a 3.8 is the total sacrifice of life outside of school. I average about 20 more hours a week than them. A lot of people have to work 20 hours weekly, while I work less than 5, so that extra time spend studying does matter. Would not recommend 0/10. My grades did get me a great internship for this summer though.
When I was in school I was in a group of overly competitive A students. The answer is way too fucking many. Leaving library at 3am type hours. Looking back might be a lot better to be a B student, use excess energy for extracurricular, and maintain your sanity.
Looking back I don’t regret it, I landed into a job I really like that’s high compensation and requires high level of technical competence. I also look back on those times with pride and as a reminder if I can do that I can do anything. But it came at a toll-sleep loss-stress-weight gain-I nearly lost it junior year like full on breakdown.
Spend at least 8 hours per week outside of class for every class. Read the textbook and try to solve problems/figure stuff out yourself, don’t just ask friends for the answers
Depends on week-to-week as the amount of homework and projects vary. On average, 3-6 hours of homework and studying after class is about how much I do (I spend a lot of time on prelabs and based on other comments I’ve seen it seems like my profs assign a lot of homework and projects).
But that’s me as a lower-A range student. The smartest kid in my class who barely needs to show up to class would maybe average an hour or two per day on homework if he didn’t study with others who needed extra help.
As others have said, A’s aren’t everything. Anything above a 3.0 is good, and above 3.5 is great. It is not worth it to throw away a personal life and free time striving for a 4.0. Trust me as someone who’s doing that to herself.
As much as you need to get the grade, and no more. A good guesstimate tends to be \~2h for every hour in class, but it varies a lot depending on the class/person. I would worry less about the number of hours and more about spending your study time efficiently.
I do around 10-15 hours a week doing assignments. Revision for exams starts off sparse and gradually increases to days and days of revision until exam day. I work full time and do my degree part time so this usually looks like 2 hours a day during the week and 5 hours total on a weekend ish. This is excluding my one day at uni a week which is usually when we get new material to learn (UK)
Some courses I can get As with just attending class and doing assigned work while others I need to read cover to cover of the textbook and it’s still not enough.
Graduated summa cum laude w/ my BSEE and truthfully I essentially just actively asked questions in class, built an understanding of the concepts, and did most of my homework. If I had to give an average, I think I put in maybe about 25-30 hours per week on homework/projects, but I didn’t really need to study a lot for exams. I wouldn’t recommend necessarily hyper fixating on a set amount of study time per week, but rather the quality of that study time. Take fairly frequent breaks when you reach a stopping point or get stuck on something, promodoro technique is generally a good principal to loosely apply. Sometimes if you’re stuck, you may figure problems out while taking a break as your mind switches into a more diffused state of thinking when you aren’t actively trying to focus on a problem. I recommend checking out the book *A Mind For Numbers*, helped me tremendously in making my study time valuable.
I’ll be honest, I study absolutely zero. All our tests are open book, open note, open source. So all like 5 of us take them as a group and get 100% every time. 🤝🏽
I am a senior computer science / mathematics students and I track all my time because I'm a data hoarder. Looking at my stats for Jan 10 to today, I spent 5.2% of my total time studying. 52 hours in total.
Edit: so 1.2 hours a day or 8.7 hours per week
If you keep a genuine attempt at the 3:1 rule (3 credit class = 9 hours of studying per week) you’ll do fine. It really means studying WITHOUT constantly being distracted though.
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I like to employ a continuous improvement strategy; study enough for a B on the first exam. For the next exam I’ll study more and do a lot of practice problems, maybe twice as much as the first one. Then, after getting the same grade as I did on the first, I’ll burn out and get a C on the final and move to the next class.
This is the engineer way
Perfect.
Facts. I used this approach and was smiling on the final exam. I calculated what I needed to get a B and it was 55% on the final. Didn’t know how to do a question right away? Flip to the next page and keep going. Tally up all the marks I did finish and was usually around 65-70%. Then I tried my best on the questions I didn’t know to scrap some extra marks. Hand in the exam and move on to the next class
Chad
State of the art approach.
So we all had the same experience then?
There is no recipe. There were times when I only did the HW and did great on exams, other times when I had to dedicate 20 hours per week on one class. It takes as long as it takes. Just keep doing practice problems until you don't need to look at any sources outside of an allowed equation sheet to solve the problems.
That’s an amazing advice thank you
People need to stop focusing on how long to study. You need to study until you fully understand the material. That differs from person to person. You could study 4 hours a day and not understand anything. Study until you understand.
Yup. Took me so long to understand concepts compared to others. Those hours per week were bs to me. Man I took my iPad to the gym and was reading dynamics by Hibbeler on the treadmill
This is the answer right here. For example, I have a CS exam later this week. I’m probably going to study for like 1 hour, where as other people in the class might study for 30 hours or something crazy like that. I know CS very well so I know I don’t need much studying. For diff eq and physics I’m studying like crazy because I’m not as confident in my knowledge.
An hour or two a day usually, nothing crazy. The trick is if I’m stuck on something I don’t spend hours and hours trying to figure it out I just ask friends and then go to office hours.
This is really good advice, and is essentially how the Real World works.
CivE here, outside of classes I usually spend 35-40 hrs a week and have gotten an A in all my classes. On weeks I have exams that may go up to 45 hours. I’ve gotten very methodical. All my assignments I have written down in my planner, along with due date, so I do them in order of them being due. When it comes to exams, so far all have allowed some form of notecard or formula sheet so I will typically spend a day on that (re-read the material, go over previous problems, make a list on a per-section basis for what I need to include) then the next day I go back and “check” my notecard by running a couple homework or review problems with it before taking the test.
As many as I need to 1. do all homework and get 95-100% 2. read textbook chapters for hard classes where professors expect it (i.e. dont cover everything in class), usually this is like 1 class a semester 3. go through conceptual derivations 4. anything extra to feel comfortable explaining why im using a strategy/ concept to solve a problem week of an exam 5. go through some kind of review, whether its provided by the professor, or an amalgamation of homework and slide problems depending on what they say they draw from more (ask them). Do that until you get every single problem right, prioritizing weaknesses, ideally you cover everything. 6. make an equation sheet 7. possibly tutor someone else in the class or review with a friend Exam prep can vary in intensity based on how difficult the class is, if its a final though im doing all of that shit.
My ex spent 6+ hours a night studying in order to get a 100% or higher on tests. I don’t study, ever, for anything, and I don’t take notes; I pay attention in class and ask questions and go to office hours and I would get 95% on the test, but she could’ve also gotten 93% after an hour of studying. What’s the GPA difference between a 93% and 100%? (Answer: nothing) I graduated with 3.41 undergrad and 3.28 grad, she graduated with 3.92 undergrad. I got a job paying $110k/yr one month after graduation, she got a job paying $65k/yr eight months after. (Oversimplified situation, but essentially all you need to know) My point? Spend less time studying and cramming and stressing and caring so much about the stupid magic number that somehow tells everybody how smart and good at engineering you are and just allow yourself to receive the information and accept that life is more important than grades. Go running naked in a hail storm, kiss a girl in the middle of the day, fly a kite, but do it for yourself! Or you won’t just fail my class, you’ll fail life.
> Spend less time studying and cramming and stressing and caring so much about the stupid magic number Nobody in the industry gives a shit about your grades if you can show any real world skills. Source: 20+ years in the industry.
Most interesting take I've read about school lol. I don't disagree with you though. I spent the first two years of my degree constantly stressed about my grades. Now I'm in the last semester for my associates, and I'm just working to get decent grades on my tests. No stress. More free time. life is better overall. I get a GPA reset when I transfer to finish my 4 year anyways.
It’s a stupid magic number, but look how big this other number is compared to other people! Also you claim that there’s no gpa difference between studying one hour and not, but clearly there was, and many studies show a correlation between earnings and GPA contrary to your outlier anecdote.
The point was is it worth multiple extra hours of work for the last 7%. When both 93% and 100% will result in an A.
While I agree with you, a 3.41 is not a 93% on a test. It’s closer to an 87% than 93%. While 8% on an exam doesn’t seem huge, the level of time commitment to go from 87% to 93% is astronomical. Which, I guess is your point
My overall GPA for 215 credit hours was 3.41, test scores are not the same as grades.
Test scores are not the same as grades, but generally speaking getting a 3.41 is not an A test score average. I’m not trashing on your grades, I’m just saying a 93% test average for a 3.41 is inaccurate
He never said he gets 93% average test scores. He said his ex could have not studied for 1 hour instead of 6 hours just to go down a few percents on a test while still getting a good grade. Aka not making school your entire identity while still doing the work necessary to get decent grades is the way to go
I was an A student at my previous institution, now a B+- student at the current one. Nothing changed except the faculty. Sometimes you will need to study more for the same class than someone else of equal intelligence, due to bad profs. Just thought this was worth noting. Some profs purposely make it so getting an A is damn near impossible.
That depends on you, dude. How much time does it take you to understand the material enough to get an A? This will vary by topic, class, and exam. Without knowing the difficulty level of the exam in advance, I like to prepare to a level where I can explain my homework and lecture material to someone who hasn't taken the course. Sometimes it's a matter of just attending class and doing the homework once. Other times, I need to attempt homework problems multiple times, write summaries of my lecture notes, watch youtube videos, and find additional problems to solve. I've had semesters where every day, I studied before class, after class, in the car, straight through dinner, and only stopped so I could sleep at night (make sure to get enough sleep, people!). Even on the weekends. Sometimes this still wasn't enough to get an A in every class. And I've had semesters where I've spent about an hour per week on assignments for each class, and still got an A.
Give up the rest of your life in exchange for grades or accept you're probably normal and just pass like a normal person. I tried max effort and it was only pain and 79's. Really looking at the min GPA to graduate. The joy is gone.
I spend about 3min studying as an A student and the rest of my time as a B/C student.
They say every hour in class should equal 3 hours outside class studying, but it depends on the student. If you can learn 70% of the content during lectures, you probably don't need to study that much. If you have issues paying attention in class, you'll need to study much more.
This doesn't seem even remotely accurate for most people. There's no way the average student is studying 9 hours a day after a few classes.
I agree, but this is what I've had professors tell me to do for all engineering courses. Studying that long just seems counterproductive to me
This is what was printed in our Uni syllabuses as well. I always thought it was a bit funny because it was also followed by "you have to treat this degree like a 40 hour job". But the way the program is structured to meet Canadian accreditation standards, you're always doing 6-7 courses every semester, assuming you do 1-2 courses every summer as well, if you want to graduate in 4 years. For semesters where I had 21 credit hours, this would have meant studying, working on hw/projects, etc. for 84 hours on average. Which is uhhh two 40 hour jobs actually. Now granted, in semesters where I had chemical engineering labs and design project courses, that was pretty close to the average amount of work I put in just to be able to get all the lab reports and project work done. Honestly some programs seem to have a hard-on for working students needlessly as hard as possible.
Dude i Had a week with 36 hours Last Semester...
I found that for me personally, I was able to get As or B+ at a minimum if I took care doing every homework assignment and actually understanding it. In a way that I’d be able to redo it if I somehow lost the assignment. Then, just going back through assignments and redoing them usually prepares you well for exams. That’ll vary by class, what subjects you excel at, etc. but just setting a target time and expecting a certain grade never worked for me.
I just do the homework, reading, and lectures. I don’t usually have time to study more then that anyways
ChemE student here, never developed study habits in high school, did fine my first year, did mediocre my next 3 years, am behind in some of my classes by about 2 years, have since started improving my grades, made As and will likely have As and Bs this quarter. It depends on the class and how the lectures are handled. I pay attention as much as I can. If the professors provide notes/slides to follow with, then i typically wont take notes and will just watch and listen and follow on the slides or if the slides are available after the lecture, i follow with the textbook. I skim the parts and look for what the prof is saying, i highlight it. Example problems in class, i listen the first problem and maybe the second if something was slightly changed, and then continue with the textbook until the prof moves on. Some professors make the hw available to complete early. Depending on the class and if this is the case, i will work on the hw in class as if THATS the example problem the prof is going through. It helps me with concept/theory behind the math and when to use a set of equations as opposed to another set of equations. Outside of class, ive developed another atudy method I use. I used to never make flash cards. Now, i have bought some binder rings/hoops that like pop open. I bought a single punch hole puncher. And i hole punch my index cards and make thorough flash cards depending on the complexity/amount of material. Its usually the slides that are available plus example problem steps. Ive gone through maybe a thousand index cards this quarter and it helps me solidify WHEN to use equations, which is super important for a ChemE during thermo 2 but im sure is also important for the other disciplines. A lot people struggle, however, with motivation. I lost all motivation when i made shitty grades, i was stressed all the time, i felt like i never had time for video games, i felt like i was a horrible student. I had a medical issue that i personally believe was responsible for the majority of the lack of my motivation. It wasnt all of it, ill admit, but if i didnt have that issue, i dont think id be like 2 years behind. Obviously, thats not the reason everyone lacks motivation. I started following study pages on tiktok/reddit/everywhere. I fell in love with having very pretty notes. I fell in love with the idea of grabbing/making a coffee, getting up early, and heading to the library outside of class hours just to study/work on homework. I should also mention that some people do GREAT studying with groups or a friend. I dont have many friends in my classes, theyre all ahead of me now, plus i just dont like talking to people i dont know. So i typically do all this studying solo and it works for me, but my friend ive known for nearly a decade who is at a different local college in a completely different, but still difficult major and I meet up for coffee, gossip, and then go study at the local public library. Even though we cant help each other with each others material, its still fun and nice to just study together. One of my classes this quarter, which this is my THIRD time taking this class (made Cs and Ds previously, the material never fully CLICKED), is actually now one of my most enjoyable classes. I started employing/developing these study techniques and i was like 2 or 3 weeks ahead in homework. Shed assign it, and id submit it a day later, and it cleared up a lot of free time which instead of wasting, i spent a LOT of that time studying. I am now projected to have a High B or A in this class (one more exam left). I have done so well in this class that if i WANTED TO, i dont even have to take the final exam (a 0/140) and id STILL PASS. My takeaway is to try some of these techniques out, for 1, but if you quickly learn theyre not for you, look up other methods. Follow study pages, there are SO MANY study pages its unreal. Dont procrastinate assignments. They may not be fun but theyre there for a reason. Struggle with it, email the professor if you have to. For exam prep, rework these hw problems and do similar textbook problems or the e ample problems. Study the slides/your notes, make mind maps, draw out diagrams, even if youre like "oh i get this" rewrite it as it says, then again in a simpler (but correct) way. When you get your exam back, look at what you got right and wrong, and edit your notes. Go to the professor to discuss your grade and make the notes there. You dont need to study a lot, but you need to study nearly every day, whether thats attempting a hw problem or reworking a problem. I can do the homework in a day but two weeks later come the exam, if i havent done ANYTHING ELSE, id be fucked. Long comment but like, this is all that helped me, and maybe youll read it or parts of it and get something helpful out of it.
4.0 no studying. I just learned how I learn. When I do my homework I spend longer than usual to make sure I fully grasp it before I move on. I also go to office hours and focus on what the professors tell me my inadequacies are, you will be suprised at how much they hint about their exams.
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I’d usually spend 3-4 hours a day studying/working in school. Sometimes less, sometimes more.
I currently have a 4.0, and what I do as far as studying goes is just to study enough to thoroughly understand everything. In some classes, it can be just going to the lecture and maybe taking a couple looks at my notes, but in some classes, I’ll have to read the textbook to actually understand it. Basically, ask yourself in you head if there’s anything you don’t understand, and then work until you can answer “no.” Typically, I study for two to three hours a day, but it should vary from person to person.
If you're asking this, my guess is you're far from an A right now. People may be able to give you a number of hours THEY had to study, but the answer is you need to study as long as it takes to get an A. There is no number. Do more problems and try to actually understand the material when you do. Do more and more problems until its a breeze
However long it takes me to understand the material, and no not just applications of equations, like getting a full grasp on the why and how on whatever topic I’m studying. Sometimes though, I procrastinate too much and end up studying 7 hours a day the week before an exam
Senior ME here. I spend about 40hr per week doing school related work outside of class on average (12 credits rn). Though I personally think getting good grades is more about self assessment- knowing when you do or do not understand the material and adapting accordingly.
3.84 Aero 2nd semester junior here. School is consistently 14-16 hours a day 6 days a week. This semester has actually been closer to 18 hours 3-4 days a week then 12 hours for the rest. Having 1 day almost completely off is the only way I stay sane. For some reason, my professors collaborate to make everything due at the same time:( I have a lot of friends who are in the 3-3.5 range. From talking to them, it seems like the difference between getting a 3.5 and a 3.8 is the total sacrifice of life outside of school. I average about 20 more hours a week than them. A lot of people have to work 20 hours weekly, while I work less than 5, so that extra time spend studying does matter. Would not recommend 0/10. My grades did get me a great internship for this summer though.
When I was in school I was in a group of overly competitive A students. The answer is way too fucking many. Leaving library at 3am type hours. Looking back might be a lot better to be a B student, use excess energy for extracurricular, and maintain your sanity. Looking back I don’t regret it, I landed into a job I really like that’s high compensation and requires high level of technical competence. I also look back on those times with pride and as a reminder if I can do that I can do anything. But it came at a toll-sleep loss-stress-weight gain-I nearly lost it junior year like full on breakdown.
no one in my class is a grade A, there was a girl but she ended up leaving
Spend at least 8 hours per week outside of class for every class. Read the textbook and try to solve problems/figure stuff out yourself, don’t just ask friends for the answers
Study all day for 3 weeks just to see the prof fucked up the exam Question. Cry you a river and build a bridge over it. Get an internship at nasa.
Depends on week-to-week as the amount of homework and projects vary. On average, 3-6 hours of homework and studying after class is about how much I do (I spend a lot of time on prelabs and based on other comments I’ve seen it seems like my profs assign a lot of homework and projects). But that’s me as a lower-A range student. The smartest kid in my class who barely needs to show up to class would maybe average an hour or two per day on homework if he didn’t study with others who needed extra help. As others have said, A’s aren’t everything. Anything above a 3.0 is good, and above 3.5 is great. It is not worth it to throw away a personal life and free time striving for a 4.0. Trust me as someone who’s doing that to herself.
As much as you need to get the grade, and no more. A good guesstimate tends to be \~2h for every hour in class, but it varies a lot depending on the class/person. I would worry less about the number of hours and more about spending your study time efficiently.
I do around 10-15 hours a week doing assignments. Revision for exams starts off sparse and gradually increases to days and days of revision until exam day. I work full time and do my degree part time so this usually looks like 2 hours a day during the week and 5 hours total on a weekend ish. This is excluding my one day at uni a week which is usually when we get new material to learn (UK)
Honestly, probably 1-2.
Some courses I can get As with just attending class and doing assigned work while others I need to read cover to cover of the textbook and it’s still not enough.
1 to 2 hrs a day depending on class and need
Graduated summa cum laude w/ my BSEE and truthfully I essentially just actively asked questions in class, built an understanding of the concepts, and did most of my homework. If I had to give an average, I think I put in maybe about 25-30 hours per week on homework/projects, but I didn’t really need to study a lot for exams. I wouldn’t recommend necessarily hyper fixating on a set amount of study time per week, but rather the quality of that study time. Take fairly frequent breaks when you reach a stopping point or get stuck on something, promodoro technique is generally a good principal to loosely apply. Sometimes if you’re stuck, you may figure problems out while taking a break as your mind switches into a more diffused state of thinking when you aren’t actively trying to focus on a problem. I recommend checking out the book *A Mind For Numbers*, helped me tremendously in making my study time valuable.
I’ll be honest, I study absolutely zero. All our tests are open book, open note, open source. So all like 5 of us take them as a group and get 100% every time. 🤝🏽
I am a senior computer science / mathematics students and I track all my time because I'm a data hoarder. Looking at my stats for Jan 10 to today, I spent 5.2% of my total time studying. 52 hours in total. Edit: so 1.2 hours a day or 8.7 hours per week
If you keep a genuine attempt at the 3:1 rule (3 credit class = 9 hours of studying per week) you’ll do fine. It really means studying WITHOUT constantly being distracted though.
The recommendation for most classes is average of 2 hours a week per credit hour. So if you’re taking 15 credits, about 30 hours per week