How many hours do you spend on study?

[Tedjn]

Point to you. Also, I know we don't attend the same university, due to my stalker instincts.

 

[Mathnomalous]

Oh wow! Stalker instincts? Now you lost me!

 

[Tedjn]

Well, let's just say I hold it in good confidence that you have a love for History, French, German, Italian, and Western Literature :)

But it is a good point that has been made a few times in the past on this thread, that different majors might require different amounts of study. I don't think the OP ever indicated his or her major, maybe physics?

 

[gretun]

Are you daring to doubt the great and mighty Facebook?

Yes indeed! Just a replacement for MySpace.

 

[Mathnomalous]

Well, let's just say I hold it in good confidence that you have a love for History, French, German, Italian, and Western Literature :)

But it is a good point that has been made a few times in the past on this thread, that different majors might require different amounts of study. I don't think the OP ever indicated his or her major, maybe physics?

Tip of my hat to you!

Different majors and different people might require different amounts of study at different universities. I've noticed that some of the people that perform at the highest level enjoy what they do.

 

[Leptos]

I've noticed that some of the people that perform at the highest level enjoy what they do.

All of the people that perform at the highest level enjoy what they do(or are at least optimally interested in what they do).

 

[cwatki14]

Monday through Thursday is not 10 days straight. What are the chances you both attend the same university? :P

It's 24/7.

"The Eisenhower Library is open on a 24/7 schedule during the academic year, with the exception of the days noted below. A school photo ID, Eisenhower Library borrowing card, or an academic ID from another college or university must be presented for admission.

The Library is open to the public from 8 am to 8 pm upon presentation of a photo ID. "

Taken straight from the libraries website. You may think it is impossible to sleep 3 hours a night, but clearly you haven't tried it. I can't say not sleeping enough didn't hinder my performance, but our reading period was cut this year due to the heavy snow fall on the east coast (a week of no classes in Feb.) It was either sleep or don't study enough. There was excessive amounts of coffee, energy drinks, and no-doz consumed...

A journal article describes the school as:
"The school's environment has been widely described as "cutthroat." A recent report in the News-Letter described how students abuse Adderall to handle the pressure: "The side effects of uncontrolled Adderall use has [sic] not dissuaded students from turning to the drug. The underground world of Adderall dealing and distribution has grown exponentially in the past few years and has proved to be a profitable practice." Students say the drug is easily obtained and for some, a necessity to stay focused."

You think it's a joke that kids are using drugs to pull consecutive all-nighters, but it's not.

I am not trying to sound overly pompous. I am not lying. I am just giving a perspective from a very intense, cutthroat university environment. Different universities present students with different study expectations. For example, I went to a large public university to take my courses for high school, and I barely had to study to get a stellar GPA. Now I can't study enough at a school which is notorious for grade deflation. It's also a personal choice. I feel like if I haven't put my all into it, even if that means not sleeping, then I haven't tried hard enough.

 

[Mathnomalous]

It's 24/7.

"The Eisenhower Library is open on a 24/7 schedule during the academic year, with the exception of the days noted below. A school photo ID, Eisenhower Library borrowing card, or an academic ID from another college or university must be presented for admission.

The Library is open to the public from 8 am to 8 pm upon presentation of a photo ID. "

Taken straight from the libraries website. You may think it is impossible to sleep 3 hours a night, but clearly you haven't tried it. I can't say not sleeping enough didn't hinder my performance, but our reading period was cut this year due to the heavy snow fall on the east coast (a week of no classes in Feb.) It was either sleep or don't study enough. There was excessive amounts of coffee, energy drinks, and no-doz consumed...

A journal article describes the school as:
"The school's environment has been widely described as "cutthroat." A recent report in the News-Letter described how students abuse Adderall to handle the pressure: "The side effects of uncontrolled Adderall use has [sic] not dissuaded students from turning to the drug. The underground world of Adderall dealing and distribution has grown exponentially in the past few years and has proved to be a profitable practice." Students say the drug is easily obtained and for some, a necessity to stay focused."

You think it's a joke that kids are using drugs to pull consecutive all-nighters, but it's not.

I am not trying to sound overly pompous. I am not lying. I am just giving a perspective from a very intense, cutthroat university environment. Different universities present students with different study expectations. For example, I went to a large public university to take my courses for high school, and I barely had to study to get a stellar GPA. Now I can't study enough at a school which is notorious for grade deflation. It's also a personal choice. I feel like if I haven't put my all into it, even if that means not sleeping, then I haven't tried hard enough.

So students at John Hopkins University are a bunch of drug addicts.

 

[cwatki14]

So students at John Hopkins University are a bunch of drug addicts.

I know of a lot of kids who whose adderall for the sole purpose of studying, but by no means does that mean everyone uses it. Personally, I have never done it. I just stick to caffeine pills, espresso, redbull, and things of that "OTC" nature. It's really unfortunate the students go to these extreme measures, but a large percentage of the student body is pre-med, and many of them come from homes where there is a huge pressure to succeed at the highest degree. I am just trying to present a different perspective to this discussion. It seems like there is a large voice of "if I am gifted I don't need to study." The issue arises when you're in a classroom full of gifted kids and there's a curve to a low B-/C. Whose to say you are better than the others if you don't study as much if not more than them? I would never study as much as I do if I didn't need to. There's an obsession with "beating the curve."

And there's a "s" at the end of John btw. It's JohnS Hopkins University. By no means am I meaning to "bad-mouth" the school. I love every minute, even the extremely sleep deprived ones.

 

[Mathnomalous]

I know of a lot of kids who whose adderall for the sole purpose of studying, but by no means does that mean everyone uses it. Personally, I have never done it. I just stick to caffeine pills, espresso, redbull, and things of that "OTC" nature. It's really unfortunate the students go to these extreme measures, but a large percentage of the student body is pre-med, and many of them come from homes where there is a huge pressure to succeed at the highest degree. I am just trying to present a different perspective to this discussion. It seems like there is a large voice of "if I am gifted I don't need to study." The issue arises when you're in a classroom full of gifted kids and there's a curve to a low B-/C. Whose to say you are better than the others if you don't study as much if not more than them? I would never study as much as I do if I didn't need to. There's an obsession with "beating the curve."

And there's a "s" at the end of John btw. It's JohnS Hopkins University. By no means am I meaning to "bad-mouth" the school. I love every minute, even the extremely sleep deprived ones.

Well, good for you. Personally, don't think it's worth putting my health at risk to obtain a similar result another person may obtain without sacrificing his/her sanity. I guess that's the price some are willing to pay.

 

[cwatki14]

Well, good for you. Personally, don't think it's worth putting my health at risk to obtain a similar result another person may obtain without sacrificing his/her sanity. I guess that's the price some are willing to pay.

It's worth it when you realize that graduate school is in jeopardy. For that I'll pay with my sanity, whatever that's worth anymore.

 

[Klockan3]

@cwatki14, I hope you realize that American undergrads have it fairly easy if you compare internationally...

 

[clope023]

@cwatki14, I hope you realize that American undergrads have it fairly easy if you compare internationally...

I'm not cwatki14, but what does that have to do with anything?

...

 

[Tedjn]

In my opinion you should never put your health in jeopardy for any reason. This is from personal experience. I was stupid in middle school and pulled all nighters like the plague. Once, for no reason at all, I stayed up five days in a row. I was hallucinating at the end. Now, I find it difficult to stay up more than 36 or even 24 hours in a row. Something tells me those early mistakes are part of the reason.

JHU may be a competitive school and staying up to study is your choice, but be aware of the harm you are doing to yourself. It should never be the be all and end all.

 

[stevenb]

In my opinion you should never put your health in jeopardy for any reason.

Definitely, jeopardizing health is not worth any goal. You see this in sports and academics, but at least in sports there is some performance benefits that are obtained even if making the tradeoff is unwise.

The thing with academics is that the whole thing is illogical. If one takes stimulants and sacrifices sleep, the body becomes less efficient at learning. Sleep is one of the most effective learning aids. The mind processes information at night. Any engineer will tell you that about half of their good ideas come while dreaming. They often wake up with the solution to a difficult problem.

Also, a healthy body and mind is more efficient at learning during waking hours. I've even found that physical activity, which could be viewed as taking time away from learning, is also conducive to more efficient learning, and you can still think when you exercise.

Another irony is that these poor learning habits often result in short term memory learning rather than long term memory and skill building. Hence, over time the student's job gets more and more difficult because knowledge and skill is not built upon.

Modern students need to "wake up and smell the coffee", not drink it to stay awake at night. They seem to be willing to kill themselves in studying, but they learn so little they can't even see how stupid their methods are.

 

[Klockan3]

I'm not cwatki14, but what does that have to do with anything?

...

Read his first post in this topic. His point is that in his opinion his course load is so tough that the only way to manage is to study constantly with little to no sleep. The point is that I doubt that his course load is higher or even near that of for example what the top students in India takes. So if one of those students got to his school reading his courses s/he would be able to cruise through it without that much work.

Similarly in the US graduate studies are a ton tougher than the undergraduate ones, so if it is possible to cope with graduate course loads it should be possible to do undergrad without studying all that much no matter where you go.

 

[cwatki14]

Read his first post in this topic. His point is that in his opinion his course load is so tough that the only way to manage is to study constantly with little to no sleep. The point is that I doubt that his course load is higher or even near that of for example what the top students in India takes. So if one of those students got to his school reading his courses s/he would be able to cruise through it without that much work.

Similarly in the US graduate studies are a ton tougher than the undergraduate ones, so if it is possible to cope with graduate course loads it should be possible to do undergrad without studying all that much no matter where you go.

I claimed that study habits are a completely personal choice! Not everyone needs to study the same. I have no idea what the undergraduate environment is like in China or India, but sometimes I wonder why so many international students come to my university if it is not for the stellar academics? I am not saying I am better or work harder because I don't find many hours to sleep.

Also, there is no possible way to survive w/o studying, no matter how brilliant you are. When you're in a classroom with a plethora of other smart kids, you have no choice but to study because you are competing against all of your classmates for a percentile. All of my courses are curved, sometimes it is even to the point where 30% is the avg and there may be a large standard deviation. Courses are curved to a B-/C, so unless you want a 2.0, you better get some sincere study habits down. Extreme studying is a part of my universities culture, if you don't conform to it prepare to achieve little success, unless you're some extremely rare exception.

I am also not claiming that undergraduate courses are harder than graduate courses, I am just pointing out that at different university environments, there exists vastly different study habits/culture.

I also argue that if you aren't studying, well then you aren't learning the material very well. I don't know many people who take away the breadth and depth of subject from lecture and "pondering" the subject only.

 

[Klockan3]

Ah well, fair!

I claimed that study habits are a completely personal choice! Not everyone needs to study the same. I have no idea what the undergraduate environment is like in China or India, but sometimes I wonder why so many international students come to my university if it is not for the stellar academics?

Well, you can make all courses arbitrarily hard by just making the tests have harder problems, by forcing them to study more things or just by grading very harshly. That is very easy to do, you don't need a good teacher to have a hard course.

I think that the US top universities have really good teachers since it is a selling point for them, I think that this has to do with how in the US people view the universities as just another business, a good teacher allows you to learn the material so much better than a bad one so it really improves what you get. Hard courses on the other hand either just forces you to work harder and thus learn more which is good, or it overloads you and breaks you which is bad.

I assure you that hard program's exists everywhere, the difference is the skill of the teachers.