To all the students with heavy courseloads!

[Centaurion]

I got a question for you ; HOW IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IT!!????

I transferred from Engineering/Commerce to Law because I was fed up of having 5-6 hand-ins a week. Law looked like a fvcking breeze when I scanned through the course-syllabus, only 2 8hour exam in the summer, and no fvcking hand-ins. But now I'm stuck at the studyhall for anything between 8-12 hours A DAY!!! EVEN SATURDAYS!!!!!!!! FOOOOOOK!!!11!!!! :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

Any law students here? How in the hell do you find the time to study that much??


/end rant

 

[Ace of Flames]

Just think of the 19 year old who did 4 years of college in 1 year. Imagine his study sessions, and consider yourself lucky.

 

[Fluffy]

we are told to aim for 5 hours study per subject per week, which totals to 20hour + 12 for actual class time for me. I dont manage anywhere near 5 per subject though, still manage to get decent scores.

 

[Centaurion]

I usually think about my mom who got her PhD when she was 22. She keeps telling me that she studied from 8 am till 1 am. Crazy ass sh!t.

I just don't get where they get their motivation. I don't want to be one of those fvckers that's always at the studyhall.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Any law students here? How in the hell do you find the time to study that much??

Not all law students do study a lot, trust me. You have to be prepared for class and do the reading ahead of time, because the professor picks out random people out of the crowd and makes them tell everyone what the assigned reading was about. But by your third year of law school, you get better at working more efficiently. What was two hours of prep time for a class is now down to less than twenty minutes. The difficult part is that law students have to work just to be able to go to class, but class participation counts for nothing; usually 100% of your grade is the one final exam. The exams are graded on a curve so that they always produce a bell-curve distribution of scores. All that really matters is how other people do. You could get 50% of the possible points and get the highest grade, or you could get 80% and get the lowest, depending on the scores of your classmates. Another thing about law school, is that these kids are the academic all-stars. Everyone at law school is used to having been the smartest person in their undergrad classes. Then we put 60 of these people in one class and make them all compete against each other. Everyone is used to doing well; that's how they got to law school, but the nature of the system is that only a few people can do well, because "well" means "better than most other students."

 

[Centaurion]

No sh!t Bible_Belt.

I think our profosser has a Centaurion fetish or something, cause he uses every oppertunity to quiz me in front of the class. I looked through the academic entry statistics, and this class has the highest entry gpa average ever for the law faculty. It's nuts, all the other students are like fvcking pirayas, waiting to jump on my ass.

 

[doctoroxygen]

OT: Where are you studying in Norway? I'm studying Norwegian as the language requirement for my uni, and I'm interested in postgraduate study in Norway in psychology. What can you tell me about school there, other than that it's outrageously expensive?

 

[Centaurion]

It's free if you're a Norwegian citizen

What do you want to know? You need to be more specific.

Psychology is a pretty hardcore subject in Norway. I believe it's open entry for anyone the first year, but they cull it down pretty hard after the first year. I had a friend that dropped out after the first, and he said that it was pretty hard.

Anyways, I'm assuming you're going to study in Oslo (that's where I am). At the top of my head : The University of Oslo is split into 3 (I think) campuses - you have 'Blindern' which is the main campus 10 minutes outside the city centre with the subway, 'Nationalteateret' which is the Law faculty right at the city centre, and 'Ullevål' where the Medicin faculty is at. I'm not sure if psychology is at Blindern or at Ullevål.

The facilities here are top notch I think they rewamped everything a couple of years back, so you have state of the arts computers and everything is pretty mordern - much better than what I've seen abroad (at least at my faculty), but the downside is, as you said, it's friggin expensive. I don't know much about the psychology courses, but there are only 20-30 people in the classes I take, so the education standard is pretty high, as the profossors have more time on each student.

The student life is great. There is always something going on, and at my faculty we have our own pub/bar right on campus that's open from 5pm and onwards, so you can always drop by and grab a beer after class. Also there are several student gyms spread throughout the city. For about 80 USD you get a 3 month pass, which is CHEAP compared to your regular Norwegian prices. The gyms are pretty modern.

There are also several dorm spread throughout the city, but none on campus as there are in the US. I believe if you stay in those dorms, you get free internet connection provided by the university (but I'm not sure on this).

If there is anything specific you want to know let me know.

 

[[R]eality]

I had 33 credit hours one semester; had free time to f around.

 

[oakraiderz2]

I had 33 credit hours one semester; had free time to f around.

Uhhh...is that so? I HIGHLY doubt you had time to do ANYTHING.

 

[djbr]

I had 33 credit hours one semester; had free time to f around.

I wish!

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

I am a biochemistry major. I have 30 scheduled hours this semester between 27 in classes or lab and 3 in the gym minimum. I study every single day for at least 2 hours. I don't actually time myself, but it always ends up being that way, because I write down in a planner when all of my assignments are due, and I plan out sometimes up to 2 weeks in advance what I can get done and when. I don't write out my plan that long in advance but I keep sticky notes and lined paper around for to do lists if a day is supposed to be particularly hard. I find that organization is my best tool for keeping my studying up. I also take full advantage of my weekends to spend 4-10 hours each weekend day studying.

To give you an idea of my courseload, here's what i had in one two-week period that ends this coming friday:

2 online quizzes, calculation intensive.
1 lab worksheet, VERY calculation and theory intensive
2 physics labs
2 physics homework assignments
1 set of lab questions which took me over 14 hours to complete
1 major biochemistry exam
1 paper for a cell biology course on different kinds of microscopy in standard MLA format
1 set of problems from my biochemistry book, mostly conceptual stuff, but some calculations
I have to make 4 original quiz questions between 2 labs for a class in which I'm a teachers assistant
I get all of this done between class and after class.

I find the easiest way to make myself productive later in the night is to avoid studying directly after my last class. Instead I take a small nap, work out, have dinner, then spend 2-5 hours on homework depending on my stressedoutness. If I only spend 2, then that still leaves 4 hours of time to hang out with people

 

[djtdot]

Hmm intresting thread. I am doing electrical engineering ( 2nd year)over 32 hrs of lectures, labs and tutorials in a week....pretty much no time for anything. I go to the gym to wrokout atleast 2 hrs a week. Most of the weekend is spent doing stupid lab preps.Over the next two weeks

-Two 3 hour labs in a single day. The lab preps take longer than the lab itself.
- Quiz on wednesday
-A midterm on thursday
- A quiz on friday
- a lab and a midterm on monday ( the bad thing is that the lab is from 3-6 and the midterm from 6-7:30, so I feel reaaaaly hungry while writing the exam ).
- a midterm on wednesday
- a quiz on thursday
- a quiz on friday
- a major presentation due on friday as well as a demo for the project.
-Two 3 hour labs AND a multivariable calculus midterm on monday. ****!!!!! ( labs from 9-12, 1 hour break, 2 hrs of lectures, 3 hr lab and immediatly after that the midterm)

Damn these profs think that we have no bloody life at all.

Have to motivate myself reaaaaaaly hard to keep the engine going.

I think if I plan it out well then I actually might have time to talk to my friends and girlfriend. Shes pretty sad these days that we don't talk much but I told her screw you I have no friggin time. Once she actually cried when I told her that I won't be able to talk to her during the week.


Gaaaaaaaah so much work to do. Anybody has any tips on time management or something? Or how to be motivated if we screw up a test or something? Coz for me anyhting less than 80 is suicide coz then I won't be able to pursue higher studies.