Student Work Day – Day 7
Today was a great day. I finished one problem set and got halfway through the other one due Friday, so there shouldn't be any (late-night!) problems tomorrow night, if you get my drift. ;-)
I've been thinking a lot about a certain problem lately, though - does my student work week actually include enough hours for me to get my desired results in classes? Things I'm considering:
1. I'm probably working more, maybe much more, than ever on my classes. If not in terms of hours, definitely in terms of work completed, even though I only manage to fit in at most six 50-minute study blocks. I think that if I had actually followed this schedule since I started college, I might have been totally covered for the semester by now.
2. But...what do I really know? My dad tells me he came home at 6 every day during college, cooked dinner and watched a little TV with friends, and then studied further until 11 PM. Plus, he worked through Saturday and Sunday. He says, "If you can manage this work schedule, you must be a genius." I consider myself a fast learner, but I don't think my classes are *easy*.
3. Also, friends and family have always told me that college is hard. "You will pull all-nighters. Multiple nights in a row." I definitely see enough Cornellians spending working on essays or studying until 6 AM (I even encountered one around 6 this morning - I was up and about because I was heading out to the gym, but he was just finishing up for the night!)...but is it really because of procrastination and poor study-skills, or is it just too much work? For some of them it might be the latter because of too many courses and too many extracurriculars, or a poorly planned schedule, but what if...college is just hard? I could accept an occasional week where one would have to buckle down and study the entire day, but little to no free time?
4. My study schedule does seem a little sparse. No work at all on Saturdays? Well that's not entirely true - I teach piano lessons, have side projects, and have a part-time job...but it does seem a bit easy in a way. Especially since today I met a high school student who claims he has studied for the SAT for 10 hours every day on Grockit.com for the last two weeks, while I write about slow mornings, afternoon slumps, and decreasing productivity as the day moves on and winds down.
5. Work expands to fill the time allocated. So maybe by timeboxing my study time, I make myself more efficient. Always possible. And there's got to be time in a college schedule to pursue an interesting extracurricular or two while partying the way we college students are entitled to. :-D
I'm interested in hearing your guys' ideas. Is college that hard, or is it just time management and overcommitment that results in late-nights with your friend the textbook? Am I just a study sissy? Am I missing something, or am I right on target?
November 11th, 2009 - 23:45
haha I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your student work day plan, but just haven’t had a chance to catch you online. Perhaps your free hours don’t overlap with mine due to the time difference :P. Maybe this weekend?
Regardless, I know that some people are just plenty smart and don’t need to study as much as the rest of us do. I know for a fact that I don’t have the time to do the things I want to do, and I don’t have any organizations/extracurriculars outside of research. There have been months when none of my friends see me due to my allocation of time in my apartment/library, and I certainly almost never go out. Maybe the classes just get harder? I do know I buckled down a lot after fall quarter though. But I’m glad to say that I’ve made it through college without ever having to pull an all nighter. I think the least amount of sleep I’ve voluntarily planned for was just 4 hours, and that was a more recent thing.
anyway, enough rambling for me. and that’s the end of MY 10min study break ;).
November 11th, 2009 - 23:45
oops, that comment up there is from your beloved cousin Jenny :)
November 12th, 2009 - 06:11
Yeah, I would expect your classes to be pretty hard, being pre-med and all. I’m expecting my work to get harder next semester, but at the same time I’m much better at time management now so it should work out. I have two serious extracurriculars right now – my part-time job and teaching piano lessons, but I’m planning on dropping the second and committing myself more to the first. Eventually I’d also like to get into research though, and I may have to rethink my priorities then (maybe by dropping projects?)
…in the end probably everyone has to think through their own situation to make sure they limit their stress, and this will always involve some combination of better time management and dropping commitments. It probably all starts with choosing classes and a course of study that you like, though – that’s where the majority of time gets spent, and if you find it cool at least to some extent, then I guess giving up some commitments in order to have the ability to do well in your subject is bearable. :-)
I’m interested in hearing about your study system sometime too, since you seem to be doing pretty well (not a single all-nighter yet? :D) ^__^
November 14th, 2009 - 21:49
I think having so much free time probably means you’re doing a good job! Many nights I’ve ended up doing hw late at night, but I always know that I could probably have saved myself some sleep if I had 1) concentrated during the day, and 2) started long-term assignments earlier. At least here in high school, the total amount of work to be done is never -that- much. Yet a lot of people make a daily habit of staying up until 2 am finishing homework, simply because of procrastination. It’s happened to me at least a few times. :D And that’s the least fun kind of “free” time because you know you’re supposed to be working…
November 15th, 2009 - 09:38
@Jenny: I am starting to wonder about the courses just “getting harder”, though…maybe people just don’t know how to balance their courseloads…but then again, many just don’t want to because they think taking harder courses will improve their chances of getting a job, or getting into med school, etc. I don’t know enough about grad school admissions to comment on this practice, though.
@David: Yeah, work definitely gets done faster when you’re not sleep deprived, too! XD ..And I find it makes for a much less stressful academic experience, as well as more…educating? Staying late will happen at least once in a while (“Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”), but if it’s on a daily or even weekly it’s probably time to reevaluate your life..THOUGH everyone has different sleep deprivation/stress thresholds..assuming you’re actually studying/doing something you like, the problem is just time management & attitude. A lot of people are proud about starting assignments late, sigh.
Probably almost everyone could improve their time-management skills, though. It’s an ongoing thing!
November 19th, 2009 - 10:53
Hi Sarah, your work days are such a good idea. But I think my attention span is too short for 50 minute blocks. x_X FYI, I’ve never pulled an all-nighter. Even if you don’t know the material and you need to know it, it’s better to just go to sleep because you won’t know anything at all if you take a test on no sleep. You will just feel like you’re swimming around and won’t be able to function. So I would really advise you not to do that. :P
College is just hard. And you DO have to have extracurriculars, so I think you’re doing well there. But if you have too many time commitments, then you will be completely stressed out and will have to stay up later than you should really have to… this was happening to me this semester and I ended up dropping a lot of things to get myself back together to graduate in May.
I think you’re on target, and yeah, everyone has difficulty with time management. But I think you’re doing much better than anyone I know in that respect. I don’t know anyone that has taken up a work schedule like you have.