Be honest.

[AnyDream]

To all the studying BBers out there - fess up.

They say for each uni subject you should be spending 10 hours (contact hours + reading/study) per subject (when 4 subjects = a full time semester = 40 hours of study per week). Do you put that many hours in, consistently? Or do you cut corners? How many of the allocated readings do you skim vs read thoroughly?

[Amity]

Honestly? When I was at uni - I NEVER did 10 hrs per subject. Absolutely NEVER. I worked 50 hours a week and was "at uni" 10 contact hours a week. That was lectures. I didn't go to tutes!

Didn't make a difference to my marks - I'm a crammer, so my last 2 weeks before exams were plain study. Only to promptly forget everything in the subject as soon as I walked out of the exam.

For me, university was only a basic building block to my career - it's life experience and work experience that make me the professional I am today.

[Trillian]

I did it properly when I first started last year - knew all the readings back to front but then I got smart and started reading only what I needed to read and only when I had an assignment to do. Saves me so much time doing it like that.

[meow]

Never, ever. I generally cram in the readings related to an assignment and muddle through that way. Stellar student huh?

[Sopdet]

I'm slack. I skim my readings unless it is mentioned in the assignment brief that a particular week's work is covered in the assignment, then I re-read the readings.

I'm currently doing 3 subjects, so 30 hrs a week study on top of approx 40 hrs a week working, I've lost weekends where I've come home from work on a Friday and got stuck into study and ploughed through 15-20 hours study, did I retain any of it, probably not.

Next semester, hopefully life will be a bit more normal, and I won't be trying to do 3 subjects a semester while working, will do maybe one or two.

[Babyluv]

I never do my lectures. I usually just do my assignments and research myself. I only do the readings if they have an exercise that directly relates. I'm doing 2 subjects & I don't have 20hrs a week spare!

[HotI]

FOr the course that i loved doing, i did read all the allocated reading, and more, cos it didn't feel like work. If the subject wasn't a fav, then my attitude was less enthusiastic. I had a couple hours travel each day on the train (and no kids) so perfect opportunity.

[Artechim]

I haven't looked at my course work since march! I have done two assignments and trying to get a third out of the way before baby arrives, then hopefully I will have a bit of time to do the course stuff in October and a quick refresher before the exam.

[misty]

Honestly - NO.
I put in alot of work (and hours) for assignments, and study for exams. That is generally it. Back when I was an internal uni student (with no kids) attending lectures I would have done more work (and gotten better grades mind you) - but even then it wasn't a steady 10hours per week (unless you are talking all the study spread across 5 subjects), but maybe a couple of hours each subject and more for assignments and study.

[krysalyss]

No. As a full time undergrad I did about 25 hrs a week total.

[Artechim]

Oh, for the undergrad days at uni!! I can't believe how much time we wasted! Attending 2 hours of lectures and a three hour lab was a full on day! Probably spent about 20 hours per week on actual uni. I still remember the deal that DH and I had for 8am lectures - whoever got up, walked the 500m to the lecture and took the notes got to buy something good at the shop on the way lol. I can't quite believe that we thought that getting up before 8am was hard!!

[Freya]

Ditto everyone else. I dont have 10hrs per subject spare (not to mention any quiet time). I skim through the online lectures and resource material and just focus on the assigments.

[Cassius2]

To all the studying BBers out there - fess up.

They say for each uni subject you should be spending 10 hours (contact hours + reading/study) per subject (when 4 subjects = a full time semester = 40 hours of study per week). Do you put that many hours in, consistently? Or do you cut corners? How many of the allocated readings do you skim vs read thoroughly?

nup. never. not even close. basically the only reading i did was what i could squeeze in while on the bus to uni.

[peanutter]

Can I preface this by saying that I am a complete nerd ...

With my last two subjects, I probably spent at least 30 hours a week on them each. They were masters units, and I did just the one at a time.

With my undergraduate subjects, it was probably closer to 20 hours per week for law subjects, and 10-15 per week for arts.

I did not do every single reading, but I would look at them all to see what was there so I could assess what I needed to know, and do all the questions and all the homework. And I spend ages revising and doing up my exam notes, practice exams, and I spend a really, really long time on essays.

But like I said, I'm a nerd.

Some friends wouldn't have spent more than 60 minutes per subject. Some spent none - they just went to classes, and then bought another student's notes to review before the exam.

HTH.

[My Three Sons]

First year... probably yes i spent that amount of time on study/uni/prac. This year, me and 3 friends have decided to divide our workload.. So we each do one subject a week- and do it thoroughly and then send it to each other. Worked really well in first semester! We do our objectives, a quick summary of the readings important points and anything else.
I spend a lot of time researching for my assignments too, so i would come close still if all that time is included.

First degree however i was the total opposite, and i still passed (well, i failed 2 subjects but passed when i repeated them!) With no work other than on my assignments and exam prep. Most of my grades first time were P's or C's. Now they are mostly HD's with the odd D, and one C.

[Jennifer13]

I NEVER did the full amount of reading time suggested, not even for my postgrad. And for postgrad there was sooooo much reading that they were possibly underestimating how long it took (and I'm a fast reader). I would do all the required reading (ie what was going to be discussed for sure and what I needed for assignments, etc), anything else I found really interesting and then left the remainder to go back to if I needed to. If it was referred to in class, I often did go back and at least skim.

I did a lot of skimming.

PS For my undergrad I majored in English literature. Of all my subjects, in literature I had no trouble finishing off all the novel reading. The textbook stuff on the other hand...!

[Purple Penguin]

It's rare that I open a text book these days unless I'm doing an assignment...lol I simply don't have the time to sit and read with 2 kids, school runs, dancing etc. i'm exhausted by the end if the day

[Teeki]

When I was at uni, my life was different than yours. I was 18-21, single, no children and living alone. My 'job' while I was at uni was babysitting family friends' children after school, it was about 20 hours a week. So really, I had all the time in the world for study and should have put in loads of time.

But pfft, study was boring! I went to the lectures for subjects I didn't quite 'get' as easy, and just downloaded the slides and notes for the others. I went to all tutes though. I think that equated to about 8 contact hours a week? Most of my tutes were 2 hours, which was good because there was lots of time for questions.

I also didn't study as much as I should have at home. I did what was required for tute questions and assignments, then crammed a bit for exams. Looking back on this, I have no idea how I passed uni, but I got good marks for everything. I guess I just made sure I was only looking at the relevant stuff, I didn't waste my time on stuff that wasn't mentioned in lectures, tutes or assignments.