My University Classes: Too Many Hard Courses on Same Day

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses the challenges of having multiple difficult university courses scheduled on the same days, including personal experiences and opinions on class scheduling. Participants share their feelings about the workload, class difficulty, and the impact on studying and assignments.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration about having all hard classes on the same days, mentioning specific courses like modern physics and calculus 3.
  • Another participant suggests that having tough classes on the same day could allow for better management of studying and assignments, depending on the schedule structure.
  • Some participants share anecdotes about their own experiences with class scheduling and exam preparation, including humorous or frustrating encounters with professors.
  • There are discussions about the nature of philosophy classes, with some participants feeling confident in their ability to perform well, while others express doubt about their grades in challenging subjects.
  • One participant recounts an experience where a professor read the exam questions to the class beforehand, leading to a discussion about the effectiveness of such teaching methods.
  • Another participant humorously reflects on the unpredictability of student performance, even when given answers in advance.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of opinions on class scheduling and the challenges it presents. There is no clear consensus on whether having hard classes on the same day is beneficial or detrimental, as perspectives vary widely.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention the impact of course credits and meeting frequencies on scheduling, highlighting the complexity of creating a balanced class timetable. There are also references to personal experiences that may not generalize to all students.

Who May Find This Useful

Students navigating university course schedules, educators considering class structuring, and anyone interested in the dynamics of academic workload management.

Alkatran
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My university classes start today so I did the first real look at my schedule and realized: all my hard classes are on the same days!

On one day I have social and ethical issues in computer science and user interface design and on the other day I get modern physics, calculus 3 and analysis of algorithms.

Ugh. Boring day, too-much-information day, boring day, ...
 
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The schedulers almost seem to do it for fun. Glad I graduated this summer.
 
Alkatran said:
My university classes start today so I did the first real look at my schedule and realized: all my hard classes are on the same days!

On one day I have social and ethical issues in computer science and user interface design
Yikes! Those look crazy hard to me. Bet I'd never get a halfway decent grade in either one.
 
Maybe I'm just different, or weird, but I would have preferred schedules like that, where all the tough classes are packed into the same day alternating with easier classes (though, from your list, I'm not sure which ones you think are the easy ones :smile:). The reason is that you can also alternate your studying and assignments. On the day when you have light classes, you can spend the rest of the day really studying hard because you aren't burnt out from the lectures, then on the days when your brain is just fried from the hard core classes, you can do the assignments for your easy classes.

Of course, part of it has to do with how many credits a course is worth and how many times a week it meets. If a class is meeting 3 times a week, the schedulers are being kind if they make it meet Mon, Wed, Fri, and put the 2 times a week classes on Tues, Thurs. It's just evil when they give you a class schedule with a class that meets Mon, Thurs, Fri, or Mon, Tues, Thurs, because those two days that you have it in a row just make it nearly impossible to keep up with the assignments, especially if you have a lot of other classes those days as well, so can't just spend the remainder of the day doing your assignments.
 
Gokul43201 said:
Yikes! Those look crazy hard to me. Bet I'd never get a halfway decent grade in either one.

Haha, philosophy and ethics classes I can do in my sleep. You don't even have to be right, as long as you argue well. There's even only going to be two 5-7 page assignements! :smile:
 
Due to overload, I ended up reading Plato's Republic during the half hour before the final. It turned out that the final covered only one subject: Plato's Republic.

Aced it. :biggrin: To this day I think he never read my paper; that the grade was based what he expected and not what he actually got.
 
Pfft Plato...have you read Heidegger!??
 
cyrusabdollahi said:
Pfft Plato...have you read Heidegger!??

No, but if I have an extra fifteen minutes I will. :biggrin:
 
cyrusabdollahi said:
Pfft Plato...have you read Heidegger!??


Personally I'm a fan of...well, do i even have to actually say it?
 
  • #10
Here is an example of a quote from Heidegger Ivan:

Nazi-ger said:
That the thingness of the thing is particularly difficult to express and only seldom expressible is infallibly documented by the history of its interpretation indicated above...The interpretations of the thingness of the thing which, predominant in the course of Western thought, have long become self-evident and are now in everday use, may be reduced to three.

(1) thingless and (2) thingness are NOT words...:ugg:
 
  • #11
cyrusabdollahi said:
Here is an example of a quote from Heidegger Ivan:



(1) thingless and (2) thingness are NOT words...:ugg:


Umm, you do realize that Heidegger did not write in english right? Take that issue up with the translator.
 
  • #12
Ivan Seeking said:
Due to overload, I ended up reading Plato's Republic during the half hour before the final. It turned out that the final covered only one subject: Plato's Republic.

Aced it. :biggrin: To this day I think he never read my paper; that the grade was based what he expected and not what he actually got.

Pfft. In my first year philosophy class the teacher literally READ THE EXAM TO US two days before the exam! She even told us it was the exam and that we should write down the questions! We discussed answers! :eek:
 
  • #13
Alkatran said:
Pfft. In my first year philosophy class the teacher literally READ THE EXAM TO US two days before the exam! She even told us it was the exam and that we should write down the questions! We discussed answers! :eek:


Gotta love those classes.

Reminds me of my Poltical Economy class.
 
  • #14
franznietzsche said:
Umm, you do realize that Heidegger did not write in english right? Take that issue up with the translator.

Yes...:rolleyes:
 
  • #15
7 final exams in 3 straight days=worst entire 72 hours of my life.
 
  • #16
Alkatran said:
Pfft. In my first year philosophy class the teacher literally READ THE EXAM TO US two days before the exam! She even told us it was the exam and that we should write down the questions! We discussed answers! :eek:
That person does not deserve the title teacher and should have been fired.
 
  • #17
Alkatran said:
Pfft. In my first year philosophy class the teacher literally READ THE EXAM TO US two days before the exam! She even told us it was the exam and that we should write down the questions! We discussed answers! :eek:
How many people still got the answers wrong? :rolleyes: My PhD mentor used to do this with just one question on the exam. He'd tell them the question and the exact answer, remind them that it would show up on the exam in that exact wording, write it on the board, and then make a bet with the students--if every student in the class got the answer right, he'd come to class with his underwear on outside his clothing. The year I was a TA in the class, a student even got up just before the exam was about to start and reminded the class of the bet and the answer. My mentor thought he was done for that year...who would get a question wrong when they had just been reminded moments before the exam started? I was the one grading the exam, and was just dying to see everyone get that question right and give him the news. :rolleyes: He still won the bet. How can a class be handed an answer just before the exam and STILL get it wrong?
 
  • #18
Moonbear said:
How can a class be handed an answer just before the exam and STILL get it wrong?

Never, ever, underestimate human stupidity.

How far off the mark was the errant student?

- Warren
 
  • #19
chroot said:
Never, ever, underestimate human stupidity.

How far off the mark was the errant student?

- Warren
Left it blank! Didn't even try. Unless they just didn't want to see their professor's underwear. :rolleyes: :smile:

There were a few others that were kind of close, but not quite, but I'd have been lenient for them since they had the concept and just hadn't regurgitated something from rote memory, just for the fun of seeing my mentor lose the bet.
 
  • #20
chroot said:
Never, ever, underestimate human stupidity.

How far off the mark was the errant student?

- Warren

For the philosophy class, I didn't write down the answers for moral reasons, not stupidity. I mean for gods sake, we COVERED morals!
 
  • #21
btw, in case it wasn't clear, what I turned in was crap. I wasn't bragging about mastering Plato in 30 minutes because I certainly didn't.
 

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