how many hours do you study a day at uni?

Former Member

This isn't to make anyone feel bad and I don't want to be viewed as a slacker but my learning support tutor wants me to study 6/7 hours a day and said that I should see uni as a ft job. A bit excessive? Is this just because of my learning difficulties or do all students do this?? I appreciate that many people do work extremely hard at university.... just yeah. What do you think?

Former Member

I reckon in first year I did about 1 hour a day, second year 1-3 and third year about 4 for the first term and for my finals I was doing 9-12 hours a day

Each of our lecturers told us we should be doing 10 hours a week study and we'd be doing 6 topics at a time so 60 hours a week! Yeah right!

Although if I'd done more in the second year I probably would have got a first rather than a 2:1, ah well hindsight is a wonderful thing, but so is going out partying so what can ya do

Former Member

A full time job?! What silly lecturer said that.

No one ever does what the lecturers say you should be doing. As long as you stay on top of your topics and understand whats going on do as much or as little as you need.

Balance it with the social side of things.

Former Member

First year probably about 1 hour a day (not every day though, just on average, so like lectures obviously then maybe 3 hours reading and 4 hours doing assignments). This year I've been doing more but it's not enough to keep up... lots and lots and lots of reading to do. I can imagine actually doing the 12 hours a week per module (per 4 modules a term) which is kind of depressing.

I can cheat by doing reading at work though . At the end of the day I've come to realise that the more you put in, the more you get out. There are people on certain degrees who do get a 2.2 / 2.1 just by doing the bare minimum all three years - completing assignments the night/week before they're due, not really doing any extra reading - so it all depends on your course. I think the best indicator would be to ask others on the same course as you. One of my modules this term - corporate governance and audit - is very reading heavy. Because it's difficult to learn something as pure as corporate governance we just have to read over a million different case studies / journals / news articles of all the big 'cock ups' like Enron and what have you.

Former Member

First year-0.
First year again-0
Second year-1, maybe 2.
Final year-doing about 5-6 on average now. It's different when you travel up and down, less going out and no house to sit and watch day time T.V. for hours on end.

Work part time as well, uni recommend no student should be doing more than 20 hours a week in work. About right, especially when you're in your final year. So much more work.

Former Member

not including band practice, which has been adding on an extra 3 hours a day, i'm doing very little...30 mins a day....

Ok, i'm not doing an academic subject, but i don't know any first year who is doing more than 2 hours a day. Even if you are a slow reader, you don't need to be doing that much

Former Member

We were told at the start of the course that ideally we should be doing an hour for every lecture we had, but in the first two years our lectures were 9 - 5 solid, and the students who did put in the study for that were emailed by the deans and told to go out and get a life!

I'm being examined every 12 weeks at the moment, so my studying has been getting more intense as I've been getting closer. I don't give myself a set time to do each day, although I probably should.

I've only ever viewed my course like a full time job when I've had to go into the hospitals and see patients or sit in outpatients or theatre (read: standing around doing sod all unless the surgeon wants you to hold someone's foot up).

Former Member

Ah I'm in second year and it was my learning support tutor who told me this. She asked me in that completely cynical, you're gonna get it wrong whatever you say way 'how many hours do YOU think you should do a week of studying? So I said..I dont know..24..She said between 30-35!!

I havent been out for a night out once this academic year because I'm such a loser and know that the work would get on top of me (if it hasn't already). I see her point in trying to make me put more study time in but this wasn't a shock tactic and she was serious. Also she said she doesnt count reading a novel as work :rolleyes: I'm an ENGLISH LITERATURE student!!

She is very nice but I think she is completely wrong about this. Argh

Former Member

I do on average 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

If you want to do well, and have a really solid understanding of your subjects then that's what you need to put in. There's a reason they call it full time study.

Obviously you can get away with doing a lot less, but you're the one paying for your degree, and it depends if you want to scrape by or do well. You get out of the system what you put in.

Former Member

Scary Monster wrote: »

I do on average 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

If you want to do well, and have a really solid understanding of your subjects then that's what you need to put in. There's a reason they call it full time study.

Obviously you can get away with doing a lot less, but you're the one paying for your degree, and it depends if you want to scrape by or do well. You get out of the system what you put in.

Argh. I realise that and well done for doing 8 hours a day but I've yet to actually meet anyone who does what she is asking of me.

Former Member

I'm in year 2 of a teaching degree, and currently do about 5 hours Mon-Fri, nothing on a Sat- me time and also paid work, and then work from 11-6 on a Sun.

Former Member

clementine_the_tangerine wrote: »

Also she said she doesnt count reading a novel as work :rolleyes: I'm an ENGLISH LITERATURE student!!

So she's expecting you to do the reading for both of your lit modules a week, plus 35 hours of extra?

Pish, tbh. Especially if she wants you to be effectively re-doing both your lectures as well.

Do what you feel comfortable with, and what you think will benefit you most.

Former Member

I don't think it's got anything to do with counting how many hours of work you do. Some people were like this in uni 'how many hours did you spend on this, how many hours are you gonna do for that'. Do as many as you need to keep up - you'll be able to tell by your grades if its enough. If you're happy with your grades then keep with it, if they're a bit low then you need to put more effort in

Former Member

approx 5 hours a day... but now I love my subject it doesn't seem that much and it's def reflected in my grades.

Former Member

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Former Member

I didn't do much when doing my undergraduate degree.

Im not completing my second year of a part time masters and I haven't really put in much time to that either...so far. Its probably all going to come back and bite me on the arse when I have to do my project though

The idea of treating it like a full time job is very interesting - does this lady think no students also have jobs?

Former Member

I'm in my first year...I'm currently in uni only 12 hours a week. I'd say I probably do only another 4 in my own-time (and that's a maximum) but I'm pretty sure that will increase next term as I'll have more assignments to do.

We've been told we should be doing about 37 hours of study but I do events management so in my eyes going out is all good research and experience, right?!

Former Member

Today:

Started at 9, stopped for lunch 1 - 2.30, I'm still going and have two more seminars to prepare for. :eek:

Former Member

I did quite a bit of work in the second year and did well in my exams so in the third year did bugger all.

Former Member

I'm still working :crying: it's unfortunate that I have biweekly seminars that are relatively 'big' in that we have to do like 1/4 an assignments worth of work each

Prepare a summary of the principal ideas set out within Stulz?s (1999)1 paper. However please note that the summary should not cover pages 10-12 or 18-23 or the CAPM section on page 24 (these areas are covered in the Spring/Summer term).

The summary should be approximately 750 words.

Is part 1 of 1 of my seminars! I really just want to go to bed, I was up late last night cracking this IBM university business challenge thing and I think we've got that sorted now, but just need to catch up!!

Indrid Cold

Sorry to intrude in here, I don't have an answer to give... But I don't understand the question, could someone explain it to me?

Surely you'd study as much as you need to, which may (and probably does) differ greatly from one person to another?

EDIT: To clarify, this is more about what some people in this thread have said about "should study X hours".

Former Member

Indrid Cold wrote: »

Sorry to intrude in here, I don't have an answer to give... But I don't understand the question, could someone explain it to me?

Surely you'd study as much as you need to, which may (and probably does) differ greatly from one person to another?

EDIT: To clarify, this is more about what some people in this thread have said about "should study X hours".

It might do, but most courses say like for every hour spent in lectures you should spend maybe 8 hours if its a reading intensive course or less if its more do work in labs course. For some courses it can seem really unrealistic when you turn up first day and have 8 hours of contact time and get told you should be doing another 40 hours a week of reading and supplementing your learning from the lectures... so the question was really does anyone *actually* do that much?

As you rightly say it depends from one person to another, and also what stage of the course you're at...

Former Member

katralla wrote: »

approx 5 hours a day... but now I love my subject it doesn't seem that much and it's def reflected in my grades.

:yes:

Plus God-knows-how-much work in the Student Union, volunteering and weekend job. I'm not sure how I ever slept during my degree!

Former Member

i do between 6-8 hours a day (including 1-4 hours of lectures and a weekly 1hour supervision) 5 days a week, then a half day of work, with one day off, so... 33-44 hours a week. then in exam term i'm doing 8-10 hours 6 days a week, somewhere between 48-60 hours a week.

i find the thing to give up on is not socialising but sleep

Former Member

I only have five hours of contact time a week but I try to do 3-5 hours Monday to Friday/Saturday.
I'm a fourth year, final year, so I gotta actually work this time round!

Former Member

sneer wrote: »

The idea of treating it like a full time job is very interesting - does this lady think no students also have jobs?

Well, it's not impossible to do both, put your mind to it and knuckle down, it's only 26 weeks of the year too.

Former Member

I hardley ever read/study at home..I should but I just don't. Only when I have an assignment do I research read medical books etc.

Curently I'm doing another 4 week block of uni so when I'm in uni it's 9-5, after them days I'd rather do anything but read about nursing!
When I'm on plcement I do read and research a little bit more, but generally learn by watching and doing clinical things i.e, injections, trachyostomy care, catheter care. We have do something like 2500 hours of placement time during our 3 years and 2500 hours of theory time.

I manage to fit in a part time job around my placements and uni so never really get weekend to read and study for lectures!

Though really think I need to knuckle down over xmas as I have my final placement next feb :crying:

Former Member

I never really measure the hours but I'm a lazy sod so it's tended not to be as much as I should. However, my uni focuses on group work and although I would have lectures in the morning and one class during the day I was busy most of the day either preparing for group work or meeting with groups (soooo time consuming!)

Now I'm doing distance learning and working full time and trying to retrain myself to do things right, read material ahead and stuff. I have a lot of breaks at work so I'm trying to use those gaps to read and then my days off to do the assignments. So far so good. :thumb: I tend to learn very easily but I often feel like I'm wasting my 'smarts' by having been so lazy in the past. I don't want that to continue as I feel my understanding about subjects is a lot different when I've read and when I've not.

I love the system I'm in now, 6 weeks for only one subject so I can focus my energy on that which is super cool. I'm repeating a course I hated at uni at the time I quit but now I'm enjoying it more because there's no other 'more interesting course' to study for instead.

Former Member

I read in the bath, in bed and when I'm wiating for stuff, like a bus or drs appointments, helps to fit reading into a busy day that way. And hbit building too, reading an hour a day is such a chore when you start but if you force yourself to do it for a few weeks, it just becomes something you do, like brushing your teeth.

Former Member

Not that much atm cause i'm a first year, i do have as assignment to get done though and really need to start doing a bit of background reading. I also work 12 hours a week (including all day on 1 of my days off) so i have less time to get my work/prep done. Not that anyone else who doesn't work really does much anyway.

Former Member

my tutor in first year told everyone that we shouldn't have jobs as uni students as uni is like a full-time job. and i do think it needs that level of dedication, but that doesn't mean continuous 8 hour working days of work. i'm an english lit degree girl as well, and reading definitely does count in those hours, sorry but it is exhausting, especially books from different centuries, or post-modern, etc. then you have to read the critiques and different theories. i'd say i did about 5 hours a week if that really, i'm on a 2:1 at the mo, i have until may to complete my dissertation and i'm really hoping for a 2:1 (secretly a 1st ^_^ ) and i'll spend about 4 hours a week doing that. so yes, this doesn't make any sense.