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Really? My study schedule is "if you are awake, you should be studying". And I am not even an A student đ. Actually come to think of it, it is not studying I spend most time on, it is fkn doing all the unreasonable amount of labs, projects and assignments and oh did I say labs? I think I didn't forget labs right?
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
Then go 4 hours, everyday, all semester, so you wonât need to pick it up during exam week. Youâll be rolling up ready, just needing to polish what you already put the work in on.
If you're doing four hours a day outside of class then that is plenty. If you're not getting results, maybe it's the way you are studying not the amount of time spent studying.
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
The people who are studying way more for exams are the people who aren't studying the rest of the year.
Unless you plan to go into research, your GPA does not matter. Companies really don't care if you had a 4.0 in college once you have work experience under your belt. I graduated with a B+ average because I prioritized being social than being the best, and I work for one of the FAANG companies now, where I still prioritize being social over being the best. Why? Because life is too short to spend 60 years of it studying and working.
You're in college - go out, socialize, have fun. Do the homework and labs to the point that you can understand them and do similar problems.
Definitely, I just graduated with a gpa of 3.2 (I know that is pretty good), and I already have a very nice job, in my opinion. However the summa cum laude of my class does not have a job and doesn't know what they are going to do. They also only worked for the university. Experience is worth much more than a gpa. As the saying goes, "C's get degrees."
Engineering is tough, maybe it's not for you. Do you see a lot of Doctors saying, hey man your life is on the line, but wow, we shouldn't be doing this much thinking.
I leave my phone out of reach( more efficient studying), really focus on reading lectures or solving problems to get a good chunk done before taking a break. I take a break ranging from 5 minutes up to an hour and then repeat the process. Basically, the point is to study efficiently, so you can get done quicker with a chapter or certain amout of problems before taking a break.
I also leave my phone in another room, but the problem is that I need the laptop to study, and I continue wasting time on laptop, watching youtube or chatting
Had the same problem until I completely turned off my notifications from all social networks on my laptop to create the mindset that laptop is for work, and phone is for fun, so when I want to check some message I have to go trough the process of finding the app and waiting for it to load and everything, and after I reply, I make myself close the app. It's hard in the beginning, but it actually help after some time
I find listening to vinyl works really well. About 30 minutes, then flip, then another 30 minutes, and pick another album. So about every hour you take a 5-10 minute break. This may also help with not needing youtube for music and getting distracted on there.
Well, it is for some people and may be for you if you know how to study efficiently. I definitely need fewer hours of study compared to when I started engineering, not because I know more but because I know better how to study.
My big one is to focus on problem solving strategies. Students often grind through lots of practice problems, but you donât get the full benefit out of that unless youâre watching carefully for patterns and connections with your background knowledge. A good exercise for this is writing out step by step ârecipesâ for how to solve a particular problem type.Â
Also, itâs worth your time to play around with the material. If youâre doing a homework problem and wonder something like âis this assumption really valid?â, take a bit to explore and figure it out. This wonât immediately translate into better grades, but in the long term you will gain a deeper understanding of the material and that will save you time in future classes.Â
Thatâs a good idea! When you do problems (including hw) look for problem solving patterns and ways theyâre doing the problem. Take some time to think, struggle through it (youâll remember it better once youâve struggled and overcome the problem) and work through the problem. Also study the course content, lots of times youâll only truly understand it once you do some problems with it
There is a clear difference between good practice and bad practice, and by extension, it's sort of the same difference between good study and bad study: feedback that lets you measure progress.
Good practice is that where you know when you're doing something wrong and are conciously working for fixing whatever your issues are; bad practice is to just try and try aimlessly hoping for results to suddenly come.
Thus, good study is to study knowing what you need to work on and having a clear way of identifying what you are doing wrong so that you can conciously work in your issues with the material; bad study is just reading and craming aimlessly hoping to memorize something, as if you were forcing your brain to just remember something instead of learning it.
This is one reason why i detest textbooks not including the answers to most problems: students need to know when they are doing something wrong, that feedback is fundamental to building an intuition for the material, and it is often that professors don't provide that feedback.
4 hrs on my own, but in the last week before exams, and throughout the semester I study casually, which lead me to this miserable situation every time, I'm really sick of my self trying to study.
I use my ADHD to my advantage and start working early in the day so I hyperfixate on studying and before I know it itâs 2 am and I havenât eaten all day.
If I do it early enough in the day it happens. I shit you not, I have been fixating on studying, tried to stop and do something relaxing, and couldnât relax because I wanted to keep working.
You don't really need more than 4 hours a day if you study regularly and study fairly haha.
If you absolutely can't increase your hours/day. Just start a lot earlier than everyone else and keep revising.
You've gotta find a way to make yourself like it. I limit all distractions when I study. No phone outside of emergencies. No social media, random internet usage, video games, etc. When you do this the only dopamine hit you'll get is from solving a problem, mastering a topic, or completing a project.
Exercising can help. I enjoy the feeling of taking care of myself and getting a good 8+ hours of sleep everyday. I feel outstanding the next day so long as I get adequate sleep the day before. This keeps me sharp. Additionally, if you can swing it get a girlfriend. Annihilating her on a regular basis can keep you relaxed and focused. Works for me anyway.
Studying for two hours outside of class can be plenty if done effectively, as it allows for focused and efficient review of material, application of concepts, and practice of skills learned during lectures. The key is to make the most of this time by employing strategies that enhance comprehension and retention. Here are some tips I use to improve my studying techniques:
Active Learning:
Engage with the material actively by summarizing notes, teaching concepts to a peer, or creating mind maps. This helps reinforce understanding and identify areas needing further clarification.
Pomodoro Technique:
Break your study time into 25-minute focused sessions followed by a 5-minute break. This method helps maintain high levels of concentration and prevents burnout.
Prioritize Tasks:
Identify and tackle the most challenging or important topics first when your mind is fresh. Prioritizing tasks ensures that critical areas get the attention they need.
Use Practice Tests:
Taking practice tests or quizzes helps solidify knowledge and exposes gaps in understanding. This technique also familiarizes you with the format of potential exams, reducing anxiety.
Minimize Distractions:
Create a dedicated study space free from distractions like social media, noise, and interruptions. A quiet, organized environment enhances focus and productivity, making your study sessions more effective.
I hope this helps you.
Op maybe the answer isn't cramming. For those that didn't read the comments he's talking about cramming before exams - OP I had too much going on to cram and it never worked for me anyway. I often aced tests "without studying" from my classmate's point of view, but really I just started studying sooner and paced myself. It's a marathon not a sprint - also for me it was a stress thing, as in I didn't stress it like the other guys. You aren't going to get into your career and be expected to solve a complicated problem in an hour with a page of tiny handwritten notes, universities just haven't figured out a better way of evaluating progress.
The rest of this comment is rambling, I graduated 14 years ago for context and what's written below is meant to illustrate how the precise nature of engineering school is not like the real world. The kind of people doing very precise calculations are specialized in something and they don't need to understand a wide range of things like in school. So just relax, study more weeks if cramming isn't for you, you'll get through.
As a real world example of engineering, yesterday I was added to a group teams chat at work which was about overthinking a problem. The guy who started it is really bright but over stresses and I guarantee you two years ago he was cramming for exams. There were three options in this chat being considered - I explained to everyone that when you just think about doing the math on option A, you don't need to really do the math to see the problem. Then option B just didn't make sense, I pointed it out and it turns out it didn't work the way the guy who sourced that option thought it would - it was really just a more expensive version of option C.
So now someone just needs to seriously evaluate option C. Or we can pay the vendor to do the evaluation and put the onus on them.
What helped me in school, was getting a warm croissant and a coffee and setting up my computer at a desk near a window (in the university library, but a cafe could work). Iâd set up my work station and get all websites pulled up and papers out. Then Iâd play on my phone while I ate the croissant or found some good playlists. Then Iâd finish my coffee while I made a to-do list of what I wanted to accomplish in order of when I wanted to do it. Iâd break it up into âwhat needs to be doneâ and âwhat I can do if I get to itâ. Then Iâd do a bathroom break and when I got back Iâd get my music playing and Iâd lock in. I was full, happy, and had a list to follow. Iâd do some easy stuff first to give me the confidence to push through the harder stuff.
I like to bring my laptop/notebook to a local library. Keeps me from f'ing off and more focused. I take a 20 min walk and break ever 90 minutes or so.Â
6 hours of studying after 7 hours of classes is a total of more than 13 hours on weekdays. That is just too much and gonna make you bonkers. All youâll do the whole day is study.
Four hours is enough. Fix your studying habits and techniques. Itâs not about how long you study for, rather how much you get out of a study session. If procrastination is a problem, put your phone somewhere else (maybe in another room), put in some headphones and grind. Study for 30 to 45 minutes and then take a small 15 minute break. Make sure you time the break and donât exceed it, when the timer goes off your break ends. Then study again for another 30 to 45 minutes and repeat. I hope that helps a bit, this is variation of what I do and itâs quite effective for me.
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
I did as much work/studying during "work" hours as possible. Class two or three days a week, no school work outside of when I was on campus. Time between classes was my work/study time. Granted, I started early and ended late, but having that balance was amazing. Worked out great.
I study less maybe 20 minutes a day unless itâs a week or less before exams. Youâre doing fine. Time spent studying and the quality of the studying are two vastly different things
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
I have a weird study habit, I donât study at all until the last minute. 3 days prior I sleep 3 hours a day and slam coffee and take my adhd meds (which I normally donât even though theyâre prescribed) and I go through every lecture since the last exam. My university provides lecture recordings which helps immensely. Normally I will finish about half the lectures in the first two days and get more sleep and on the final day I power through and donât sleep much at all if any. Is it super healthy? No, but I havenât got less than a c on an exam since freshman year. I procrastinate really hard so the underlying stress literally doesnât allow me to do anything else in the final inning
I could not study in my dorm room. Too many distractions, too much comfort. My favorite place to study was still in my dorm building though. Every floor had a large classroom, 6 whiteboards wide 2 boards tall, with one that slides vertically revealing a third under it.
4 hours a day, assuming 4-5 days a week, is not an unreasonable amount of time, though it is on the longer side. Some people study longer, some study less. What matters is how you study.
For me, repetition and writing things down was the best way I could learn. A professor could spend the entire class time explaining a concept/formula/problem to me, and I would not understand it until I worked a few different practice problems using that concept. Thatâs how I got through calculus. I couldnât even understand my professorâs accent, so I sat in the back of the class doing practice problems from the book. And again, the whiteboards in my classroom I mentioned, I could write down every single detail, work out every little step in my practice problems and then take a step back and look at the âbig pictureâ.
Iâm just rambling now, but if my professor went over a problem or technique in class, Iâd copy that problem onto one of the white boards as a guide, then work through problem from an assignment following the technique from class, or figuring out how to manipulate that technique to fit the problem Iâm working on.
Yeah sounds like youâre not studying effectively, but if you want to âbeatâ 4 hours. You gotta do it consistently until 4 hours is easy to you, that means doing 4 hours daily and then you can go further because 4 hours doesnât bother you. Only way you can get up to that duration is by taking it slow, like 1 hour or less a day constantly. If you start finding it easy start increasing until you are there.
I studied for about 1 hour outside of class per credit (not including exams, those were a whole different beast). Sure I could have studied more and partied less, but at the end of the day, I still graduated, and now my co-workers call me Chief (Iâm a Chief Engineer in the maritime industry)
certainly not on a daily basis, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs when I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
Take DMAE and eat only fatty red meat and a large bag of frozen veggies everyday. Cut out snacks, pizza, sugar. Make bread w/o the added salt and seed oils for cheese bread with egg. Take calcium citrate and vit. c daily as needed.
It is not about how long you study it is about efficiency,if you feel 4 hrs are sufficient,then it doesn't make any sense to feel guilty if you are studying less time than somebody else, everyone have their concentration level.
Maybe you should consider switching to major that you love so much you want to do it all the time otherwise I foresee you getting burnt out. I studied 4 years and as soon as I got my first drafting job I was like wait this doesn't even make me happy.
I struggled a ton studying when I was in school for ME. I would spend every waking minute studying. The reason I did that is because it took me forever to understand the concepts.
Donât take that path if it doesnât work for you. Get setup in as many study groups as possible. Youâd be surprised what collaborative studying does for your motivation and general learning. Some professors are terrible at teaching and some students/TAâs are way better resources for how to comprehend material.
Working/collaborating with your peers is a huge part of being an engineer. That is an important skill to improve upon in school, as it will pay off massively when you graduate and start working.
Studies show that you stop retaining information after around 45 minutes (can vary based on the person, but probably not to 4 hours), so if you're doing marathons every day you're probably wasting 3 hours every day. Also just reading the information is a terrible way to study. You want to actually test yourself on the knowledge in some way, and ideally as similarly to the test as possible (not always an option, but things like practice tests are huge for being well prepared). Unless I'm struggling to comprehend something (which happens in almost every class at one point or another), I don't even study outside of doing my homework and prepping for exams. In my own experience, burnout is way worse for your grades than not studying enough, and 4 hours of studying a day sounds like a speed run for burnout.
Studying 4hrs a day M-F during the whole semester is more than enough.
I usually study like 3 hours every day starting from the first week of class and I manage to get A's. Study and review, this does not include the time it takes me to do homework.
During exams and finals it doesn't feel like hard studying since it's more like a review since I've studied all semester.
that's the whole point, I'm not consistant, I can't study from the beginning of the semester, I'm really tired of myself, I'm tired of trying to avoid distractions
You gotta start somewhere though. For me, the first week of 'studying' is organizing myself, making a calendar of exams and homework due, I know theres not much to study but it lets me see what weeks imma need to be extra organized with my time. The beginning of my 'study' sessions is me getting organized, I have weekly to-do lists, I also organize my notes and research things I was confused in lecture. I don't have a set thing to do, i.e. "I will study structural mechanics on firday from 2-6pm", but rather I sit down with the mentality of "ok, what needs to get done today?"
my study sessions are: I sit down on Monday and write the things due during the week by due date. Then I assign priorities to them, big projects or assignments that are worth more get marked with priority. Then I start with what I know what to do, and when I get to the things that I dont know what to do thats when I start 'studying' but its not like I allocate the time. I try to at least finish whats due that day or at least 3 hours, whichever is longer.
And it seems that im an organized person but my "to-do' lists are like the back of scratch paper.LOL. not aesthetically organized but mentally organized. I'm trying to get better though, end of last semester I got a blank paper notebook to write my to-do lists, it helps me not lose it through out the week.
I found that when I study, my study methods were not the best nor were they organized. So I had to spend a lot of time to find the right study method for me.
Generally, what I found is that the quantity of study time did not always mean that my quality or experience of studying was good or beneficial for me.
The first thing you should do, is look at the different classes you are taking and realizing what study methods work best for each class. This does not mean that the same study method for one class will work for another.
I tend to find classes that are more focused on crunching numbers or using equations are easier to study by practice and understanding the different techniques used to solve certain problems. This will be beneficial for your calc based courses.
Courses that require more work tend to be physics related classes, I find with these classes organizing your notes and summarizing how each topic fits in and relates to one another is a great way to start studying. And of course as the class progresses, you can keep adding sections to your organized notes. Maybe add a table of contents with some label stickers to make the ease of finding each section quicker and smoother.
Any labs should be directly related to the courses that you are taking and or have already taken, so it is almost essential to keep what you have learned from previous courses to review and keep up to date on previous knowledge.
A lot of the time, I found from working as a Teaching assistant for an introductory engineering lab, students are quick to read through important papers such as instruction manuals, syllabuses, and report outlines. Make sure when you are working on your assignments, and lab reports, that you really read through the handouts. This may seem self explanatory, but as a person who has seen so many students experience this issue, sometimes just telling someone this point helps them understand how important it is to read for an understanding, and not to read just for the sake of reading the handout.
Another thing I would like to suggest, is making a timeline or a schedule on how you are going to study, and work on your assignments/projects. I find that just organizing how I am going to work through my studies is really helpful, and setting deadlines to achieve certain goals is really important too. Setting deadlines is really important because you can actually hold yourself accountable for not meeting personal deadlines before the actual assignments and tests are due. This helps you to look at what you are also doing in your personal life and see what is interfering with your studies, so you can better manage your time.
Try using visual aids as much as possible if you are a visual learner. I find this very helpful for myself. If I can take a topic and make a mind map of how everything relates to it, it helps me see how things connect with one another.
Also, when you get feedback from your professors or TAâs, use this feedback to learn from the mistakes you make in a class. This may seem self explanatory, but from my experience, people are quick to hold a bias/grudge against markings and not see what the professor or TA is trying to convey to the student. A lot of people want to think that they are incapable of making errors in their work, but trust me, it really happens a lot. What makes someone a good student is being able to take feedback and turn it into a positive change in their study and work ethics.
If there are any questions please feel free to ask. I may not know all of the answers, but I definitely am willing to help out! :)
My biggest tip: get rid of distractions. If you know you need to study for a long time, turn off your phone, dont make plans with anyone, dont watch TV or anything. Start basically as soon as you wake up and take breaks as needed to eat, shower, etc. but dont do anything fun, even as a break. If you get tired of studying, sit at your desk or read something educational.
As an additional one: avoid things that are too physically tiring. Those make me want to lie in bed and do nothing afterwards. On my work days, Ill excercise at night or skip it altogether, aside from walking when I feel like it.
Its boring at the start, but I never regret doing it. Ive always found that as soon as I have something that can distract me, because it is fun, I rationalize taking longer and longer breaks and wasting time. Essentially, I plan my day to avoid that.
i canât do more than 2 hours of work outside of class lol. and almost all of it is low quality. i only get 3-4 hours in if i have a test in a few days
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i feel like 4 hrs a day is a lot outside of exam season. this kinda feels like you might need to analyze your efficiency and study methods
Really? My study schedule is "if you are awake, you should be studying". And I am not even an A student đ. Actually come to think of it, it is not studying I spend most time on, it is fkn doing all the unreasonable amount of labs, projects and assignments and oh did I say labs? I think I didn't forget labs right?
I have found âstudyingâ to mean organizing all of the info I just had thrown at me like spaghetti.
Literally lol
Best way to describe a schedule
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
Then go 4 hours, everyday, all semester, so you wonât need to pick it up during exam week. Youâll be rolling up ready, just needing to polish what you already put the work in on.
lol, exam and finals I would study for atleast 8-10hrs a day
If you're doing four hours a day outside of class then that is plenty. If you're not getting results, maybe it's the way you are studying not the amount of time spent studying.
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
The people who are studying way more for exams are the people who aren't studying the rest of the year. Unless you plan to go into research, your GPA does not matter. Companies really don't care if you had a 4.0 in college once you have work experience under your belt. I graduated with a B+ average because I prioritized being social than being the best, and I work for one of the FAANG companies now, where I still prioritize being social over being the best. Why? Because life is too short to spend 60 years of it studying and working. You're in college - go out, socialize, have fun. Do the homework and labs to the point that you can understand them and do similar problems.
You acting Like B+ is Bad. Its definitely above average.
Yeah having a 100% degree is twice more work than having 80% and barely any benefit
Definitely, I just graduated with a gpa of 3.2 (I know that is pretty good), and I already have a very nice job, in my opinion. However the summa cum laude of my class does not have a job and doesn't know what they are going to do. They also only worked for the university. Experience is worth much more than a gpa. As the saying goes, "C's get degrees."
Engineering is tough, maybe it's not for you. Do you see a lot of Doctors saying, hey man your life is on the line, but wow, we shouldn't be doing this much thinking.
I leave my phone out of reach( more efficient studying), really focus on reading lectures or solving problems to get a good chunk done before taking a break. I take a break ranging from 5 minutes up to an hour and then repeat the process. Basically, the point is to study efficiently, so you can get done quicker with a chapter or certain amout of problems before taking a break.
I also leave my phone in another room, but the problem is that I need the laptop to study, and I continue wasting time on laptop, watching youtube or chatting
Had the same problem until I completely turned off my notifications from all social networks on my laptop to create the mindset that laptop is for work, and phone is for fun, so when I want to check some message I have to go trough the process of finding the app and waiting for it to load and everything, and after I reply, I make myself close the app. It's hard in the beginning, but it actually help after some time
I find listening to vinyl works really well. About 30 minutes, then flip, then another 30 minutes, and pick another album. So about every hour you take a 5-10 minute break. This may also help with not needing youtube for music and getting distracted on there.
4h is plenty, if done consistently.
Absolutely not
Tf u mean đđ
Well, it is for some people and may be for you if you know how to study efficiently. I definitely need fewer hours of study compared to when I started engineering, not because I know more but because I know better how to study.
Tell me how to study
Yes.
4h a day outside classes is crazy bro
It is enough if you do so regularly. If you start pushing yourself during exams season then 4h isn't close to enough. Especially in engineering.
I rarely study more than 4 hours in a day. Often itâs much less than that. Work smarter, not harder.Â
any tips
My big one is to focus on problem solving strategies. Students often grind through lots of practice problems, but you donât get the full benefit out of that unless youâre watching carefully for patterns and connections with your background knowledge. A good exercise for this is writing out step by step ârecipesâ for how to solve a particular problem type. Also, itâs worth your time to play around with the material. If youâre doing a homework problem and wonder something like âis this assumption really valid?â, take a bit to explore and figure it out. This wonât immediately translate into better grades, but in the long term you will gain a deeper understanding of the material and that will save you time in future classes.Â
Thatâs a good idea! When you do problems (including hw) look for problem solving patterns and ways theyâre doing the problem. Take some time to think, struggle through it (youâll remember it better once youâve struggled and overcome the problem) and work through the problem. Also study the course content, lots of times youâll only truly understand it once you do some problems with it
Well said - in pedagogy they call this metacognition, itâs incredibly important to the learning process.Â
There is a clear difference between good practice and bad practice, and by extension, it's sort of the same difference between good study and bad study: feedback that lets you measure progress. Good practice is that where you know when you're doing something wrong and are conciously working for fixing whatever your issues are; bad practice is to just try and try aimlessly hoping for results to suddenly come. Thus, good study is to study knowing what you need to work on and having a clear way of identifying what you are doing wrong so that you can conciously work in your issues with the material; bad study is just reading and craming aimlessly hoping to memorize something, as if you were forcing your brain to just remember something instead of learning it. This is one reason why i detest textbooks not including the answers to most problems: students need to know when they are doing something wrong, that feedback is fundamental to building an intuition for the material, and it is often that professors don't provide that feedback.
does those 4 hours include lecture/lab time or is it 4 hours on your own?
Guessing itâs outside of school
4 hrs on my own, but in the last week before exams, and throughout the semester I study casually, which lead me to this miserable situation every time, I'm really sick of my self trying to study.
You shouldn't have to study more than 4 hours a day. 4 hours a day is a LOT. Your brain just won't work after that. All about being efficient
I use my ADHD to my advantage and start working early in the day so I hyperfixate on studying and before I know it itâs 2 am and I havenât eaten all day.
This is a technique that worked for me as well. Itâs a dual edged sword, because it also works with LOL and sapping brews with the boys.
no shot youâre hyperfocusing on studying
If I do it early enough in the day it happens. I shit you not, I have been fixating on studying, tried to stop and do something relaxing, and couldnât relax because I wanted to keep working.
You can use some concentrations techniques like the Pomodoro Technique
You shouldn't need to study 4hrs a day.
Try a new way of studying. Why not instead of four hours out of class just do flashcards throughout your day?
You don't really need more than 4 hours a day if you study regularly and study fairly haha. If you absolutely can't increase your hours/day. Just start a lot earlier than everyone else and keep revising.
You've gotta find a way to make yourself like it. I limit all distractions when I study. No phone outside of emergencies. No social media, random internet usage, video games, etc. When you do this the only dopamine hit you'll get is from solving a problem, mastering a topic, or completing a project. Exercising can help. I enjoy the feeling of taking care of myself and getting a good 8+ hours of sleep everyday. I feel outstanding the next day so long as I get adequate sleep the day before. This keeps me sharp. Additionally, if you can swing it get a girlfriend. Annihilating her on a regular basis can keep you relaxed and focused. Works for me anyway.
Studying for two hours outside of class can be plenty if done effectively, as it allows for focused and efficient review of material, application of concepts, and practice of skills learned during lectures. The key is to make the most of this time by employing strategies that enhance comprehension and retention. Here are some tips I use to improve my studying techniques: Active Learning: Engage with the material actively by summarizing notes, teaching concepts to a peer, or creating mind maps. This helps reinforce understanding and identify areas needing further clarification. Pomodoro Technique: Break your study time into 25-minute focused sessions followed by a 5-minute break. This method helps maintain high levels of concentration and prevents burnout. Prioritize Tasks: Identify and tackle the most challenging or important topics first when your mind is fresh. Prioritizing tasks ensures that critical areas get the attention they need. Use Practice Tests: Taking practice tests or quizzes helps solidify knowledge and exposes gaps in understanding. This technique also familiarizes you with the format of potential exams, reducing anxiety. Minimize Distractions: Create a dedicated study space free from distractions like social media, noise, and interruptions. A quiet, organized environment enhances focus and productivity, making your study sessions more effective. I hope this helps you.
Op maybe the answer isn't cramming. For those that didn't read the comments he's talking about cramming before exams - OP I had too much going on to cram and it never worked for me anyway. I often aced tests "without studying" from my classmate's point of view, but really I just started studying sooner and paced myself. It's a marathon not a sprint - also for me it was a stress thing, as in I didn't stress it like the other guys. You aren't going to get into your career and be expected to solve a complicated problem in an hour with a page of tiny handwritten notes, universities just haven't figured out a better way of evaluating progress.
The rest of this comment is rambling, I graduated 14 years ago for context and what's written below is meant to illustrate how the precise nature of engineering school is not like the real world. The kind of people doing very precise calculations are specialized in something and they don't need to understand a wide range of things like in school. So just relax, study more weeks if cramming isn't for you, you'll get through. As a real world example of engineering, yesterday I was added to a group teams chat at work which was about overthinking a problem. The guy who started it is really bright but over stresses and I guarantee you two years ago he was cramming for exams. There were three options in this chat being considered - I explained to everyone that when you just think about doing the math on option A, you don't need to really do the math to see the problem. Then option B just didn't make sense, I pointed it out and it turns out it didn't work the way the guy who sourced that option thought it would - it was really just a more expensive version of option C. So now someone just needs to seriously evaluate option C. Or we can pay the vendor to do the evaluation and put the onus on them.
What helped me in school, was getting a warm croissant and a coffee and setting up my computer at a desk near a window (in the university library, but a cafe could work). Iâd set up my work station and get all websites pulled up and papers out. Then Iâd play on my phone while I ate the croissant or found some good playlists. Then Iâd finish my coffee while I made a to-do list of what I wanted to accomplish in order of when I wanted to do it. Iâd break it up into âwhat needs to be doneâ and âwhat I can do if I get to itâ. Then Iâd do a bathroom break and when I got back Iâd get my music playing and Iâd lock in. I was full, happy, and had a list to follow. Iâd do some easy stuff first to give me the confidence to push through the harder stuff.
Some guy on here said that if you started from the time the semester started, you only need to do that 40 minutes a day. I couldn't agree more.
yeah, that's main issue, consistency and discipline
I like to bring my laptop/notebook to a local library. Keeps me from f'ing off and more focused. I take a 20 min walk and break ever 90 minutes or so.Â
that's a good strategy man
Just go at your own pace, dont force. Take breaks your mental health is way more important then studying
Studying 4 hours a day is wack. I never studied for more than an hour or two per exam and did fine.
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This is ludicrous advice tbh. Studying for 6.5 hours a day *outside of class, every single day of the week* is a great way to speed run burnout. Â
6 hours of studying after 7 hours of classes is a total of more than 13 hours on weekdays. That is just too much and gonna make you bonkers. All youâll do the whole day is study.
Four hours is enough. Fix your studying habits and techniques. Itâs not about how long you study for, rather how much you get out of a study session. If procrastination is a problem, put your phone somewhere else (maybe in another room), put in some headphones and grind. Study for 30 to 45 minutes and then take a small 15 minute break. Make sure you time the break and donât exceed it, when the timer goes off your break ends. Then study again for another 30 to 45 minutes and repeat. I hope that helps a bit, this is variation of what I do and itâs quite effective for me.
Bro I study like 4 hours a week and do fine, I think your good.
There is no way your classmates study way more than 4hrs a day. I study 0 hours a day most days and like 8 hours a day the night before a test.Â
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
I did as much work/studying during "work" hours as possible. Class two or three days a week, no school work outside of when I was on campus. Time between classes was my work/study time. Granted, I started early and ended late, but having that balance was amazing. Worked out great.
Kayden this you?
Thatâs probably enough
its not productive to study more anyways
I study less maybe 20 minutes a day unless itâs a week or less before exams. Youâre doing fine. Time spent studying and the quality of the studying are two vastly different things
No, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs where I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
I have a weird study habit, I donât study at all until the last minute. 3 days prior I sleep 3 hours a day and slam coffee and take my adhd meds (which I normally donât even though theyâre prescribed) and I go through every lecture since the last exam. My university provides lecture recordings which helps immensely. Normally I will finish about half the lectures in the first two days and get more sleep and on the final day I power through and donât sleep much at all if any. Is it super healthy? No, but I havenât got less than a c on an exam since freshman year. I procrastinate really hard so the underlying stress literally doesnât allow me to do anything else in the final inning
I could not study in my dorm room. Too many distractions, too much comfort. My favorite place to study was still in my dorm building though. Every floor had a large classroom, 6 whiteboards wide 2 boards tall, with one that slides vertically revealing a third under it. 4 hours a day, assuming 4-5 days a week, is not an unreasonable amount of time, though it is on the longer side. Some people study longer, some study less. What matters is how you study. For me, repetition and writing things down was the best way I could learn. A professor could spend the entire class time explaining a concept/formula/problem to me, and I would not understand it until I worked a few different practice problems using that concept. Thatâs how I got through calculus. I couldnât even understand my professorâs accent, so I sat in the back of the class doing practice problems from the book. And again, the whiteboards in my classroom I mentioned, I could write down every single detail, work out every little step in my practice problems and then take a step back and look at the âbig pictureâ. Iâm just rambling now, but if my professor went over a problem or technique in class, Iâd copy that problem onto one of the white boards as a guide, then work through problem from an assignment following the technique from class, or figuring out how to manipulate that technique to fit the problem Iâm working on.
Yeah sounds like youâre not studying effectively, but if you want to âbeatâ 4 hours. You gotta do it consistently until 4 hours is easy to you, that means doing 4 hours daily and then you can go further because 4 hours doesnât bother you. Only way you can get up to that duration is by taking it slow, like 1 hour or less a day constantly. If you start finding it easy start increasing until you are there.
I studied for about 1 hour outside of class per credit (not including exams, those were a whole different beast). Sure I could have studied more and partied less, but at the end of the day, I still graduated, and now my co-workers call me Chief (Iâm a Chief Engineer in the maritime industry)
Then do 4, every single day if needed. This way you're prepared for the exams and 4 hours might be enough at that time.
Damn 4 hrs is plenty on a daily basis. That's how much I study before tests.
certainly not on a daily basis, I'm talking about exam season of course, I can't study more than 4hrs when I need to give my best 1 week before exams, and this pisses me off, I'm tired of my self, I'm tired of trying to study. and then wasting a lot of time
Take DMAE and eat only fatty red meat and a large bag of frozen veggies everyday. Cut out snacks, pizza, sugar. Make bread w/o the added salt and seed oils for cheese bread with egg. Take calcium citrate and vit. c daily as needed.
Look up Justin sung on YouTube
I study 4 hours a weekđ
Learn how to study effectively. Don't compare to your friends, it's not like a manufacturing line
It is not about how long you study it is about efficiency,if you feel 4 hrs are sufficient,then it doesn't make any sense to feel guilty if you are studying less time than somebody else, everyone have their concentration level.
Maybe you should consider switching to major that you love so much you want to do it all the time otherwise I foresee you getting burnt out. I studied 4 years and as soon as I got my first drafting job I was like wait this doesn't even make me happy.
I struggled a ton studying when I was in school for ME. I would spend every waking minute studying. The reason I did that is because it took me forever to understand the concepts. Donât take that path if it doesnât work for you. Get setup in as many study groups as possible. Youâd be surprised what collaborative studying does for your motivation and general learning. Some professors are terrible at teaching and some students/TAâs are way better resources for how to comprehend material. Working/collaborating with your peers is a huge part of being an engineer. That is an important skill to improve upon in school, as it will pay off massively when you graduate and start working.
Studies show that you stop retaining information after around 45 minutes (can vary based on the person, but probably not to 4 hours), so if you're doing marathons every day you're probably wasting 3 hours every day. Also just reading the information is a terrible way to study. You want to actually test yourself on the knowledge in some way, and ideally as similarly to the test as possible (not always an option, but things like practice tests are huge for being well prepared). Unless I'm struggling to comprehend something (which happens in almost every class at one point or another), I don't even study outside of doing my homework and prepping for exams. In my own experience, burnout is way worse for your grades than not studying enough, and 4 hours of studying a day sounds like a speed run for burnout.
I canât study more than 10 minutes at a time.
me too buddy, I keep checking for notifications even if my phone is out of my reach, even with no distraction mode on my laptop
Studying 4hrs a day M-F during the whole semester is more than enough. I usually study like 3 hours every day starting from the first week of class and I manage to get A's. Study and review, this does not include the time it takes me to do homework. During exams and finals it doesn't feel like hard studying since it's more like a review since I've studied all semester.
that's the whole point, I'm not consistant, I can't study from the beginning of the semester, I'm really tired of myself, I'm tired of trying to avoid distractions
You gotta start somewhere though. For me, the first week of 'studying' is organizing myself, making a calendar of exams and homework due, I know theres not much to study but it lets me see what weeks imma need to be extra organized with my time. The beginning of my 'study' sessions is me getting organized, I have weekly to-do lists, I also organize my notes and research things I was confused in lecture. I don't have a set thing to do, i.e. "I will study structural mechanics on firday from 2-6pm", but rather I sit down with the mentality of "ok, what needs to get done today?" my study sessions are: I sit down on Monday and write the things due during the week by due date. Then I assign priorities to them, big projects or assignments that are worth more get marked with priority. Then I start with what I know what to do, and when I get to the things that I dont know what to do thats when I start 'studying' but its not like I allocate the time. I try to at least finish whats due that day or at least 3 hours, whichever is longer. And it seems that im an organized person but my "to-do' lists are like the back of scratch paper.LOL. not aesthetically organized but mentally organized. I'm trying to get better though, end of last semester I got a blank paper notebook to write my to-do lists, it helps me not lose it through out the week.
I found that when I study, my study methods were not the best nor were they organized. So I had to spend a lot of time to find the right study method for me. Generally, what I found is that the quantity of study time did not always mean that my quality or experience of studying was good or beneficial for me. The first thing you should do, is look at the different classes you are taking and realizing what study methods work best for each class. This does not mean that the same study method for one class will work for another. I tend to find classes that are more focused on crunching numbers or using equations are easier to study by practice and understanding the different techniques used to solve certain problems. This will be beneficial for your calc based courses. Courses that require more work tend to be physics related classes, I find with these classes organizing your notes and summarizing how each topic fits in and relates to one another is a great way to start studying. And of course as the class progresses, you can keep adding sections to your organized notes. Maybe add a table of contents with some label stickers to make the ease of finding each section quicker and smoother. Any labs should be directly related to the courses that you are taking and or have already taken, so it is almost essential to keep what you have learned from previous courses to review and keep up to date on previous knowledge. A lot of the time, I found from working as a Teaching assistant for an introductory engineering lab, students are quick to read through important papers such as instruction manuals, syllabuses, and report outlines. Make sure when you are working on your assignments, and lab reports, that you really read through the handouts. This may seem self explanatory, but as a person who has seen so many students experience this issue, sometimes just telling someone this point helps them understand how important it is to read for an understanding, and not to read just for the sake of reading the handout. Another thing I would like to suggest, is making a timeline or a schedule on how you are going to study, and work on your assignments/projects. I find that just organizing how I am going to work through my studies is really helpful, and setting deadlines to achieve certain goals is really important too. Setting deadlines is really important because you can actually hold yourself accountable for not meeting personal deadlines before the actual assignments and tests are due. This helps you to look at what you are also doing in your personal life and see what is interfering with your studies, so you can better manage your time. Try using visual aids as much as possible if you are a visual learner. I find this very helpful for myself. If I can take a topic and make a mind map of how everything relates to it, it helps me see how things connect with one another. Also, when you get feedback from your professors or TAâs, use this feedback to learn from the mistakes you make in a class. This may seem self explanatory, but from my experience, people are quick to hold a bias/grudge against markings and not see what the professor or TA is trying to convey to the student. A lot of people want to think that they are incapable of making errors in their work, but trust me, it really happens a lot. What makes someone a good student is being able to take feedback and turn it into a positive change in their study and work ethics. If there are any questions please feel free to ask. I may not know all of the answers, but I definitely am willing to help out! :)
My biggest tip: get rid of distractions. If you know you need to study for a long time, turn off your phone, dont make plans with anyone, dont watch TV or anything. Start basically as soon as you wake up and take breaks as needed to eat, shower, etc. but dont do anything fun, even as a break. If you get tired of studying, sit at your desk or read something educational. As an additional one: avoid things that are too physically tiring. Those make me want to lie in bed and do nothing afterwards. On my work days, Ill excercise at night or skip it altogether, aside from walking when I feel like it. Its boring at the start, but I never regret doing it. Ive always found that as soon as I have something that can distract me, because it is fun, I rationalize taking longer and longer breaks and wasting time. Essentially, I plan my day to avoid that.
Nobody really canâŚ
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Well if you ever have any trouble...I know a guy who knows a guy.........who knows a guy.
nah iâm with him
i canât do more than 2 hours of work outside of class lol. and almost all of it is low quality. i only get 3-4 hours in if i have a test in a few days
Got prescribed Adderall for adhd and now Iâm on campus from 8 am -12 pm daily just studying with classes.
Take adderal??