Is Studying or Doing Homework More Effective for Academic Success?

[joej24]

Do you consider doing homework studying? Would it be a good habit to start studying the material given in classes for some hours rather than just doing the homework? Maintaining a decent grade is not too hard right now by just doing assignments and listening in class. I heard that undergraduate students and older usually study 20+ hrs per week. Does that include homework that they do? I don't think I have the focus to do that right now as a junior in high school.

 

[diazona]

You mean there's another kind of studying?

Seriously though, if by "studying" you mean staring at a textbook, that's pretty useless. You can conceivably get away with it in high school because high school physics classes are a joke (at least, if yours is anything like mine was), but for college-level science and math, pretty much the only effective way to study is by doing problems.

 

[joej24]

How long do you usually study for? So you do sit down for a couple hours every day and do problems from textbooks?

 

[Caramon]

For a 3.8 - 4.0 GPA I would suggest to study for 50 hours a week outside of class during undergraduate school. You can afford to uphold a schedule like that (~10 hours a week per class) easily with taking most of saturday and sunday off and having two 4-hour outings throughout the week. Just be efficient in your spare time and don't slack off/watch TV. Be productive and use your time usefully!

 

[diazona]

How long do you usually study for? So you do sit down for a couple hours every day and do problems from textbooks?

That's basically what doing a homework assignment for a college physics class entails. I never kept track of my time that precisely, but it probably worked out to about 10-12 hours a week per class, for physics and math classes. In practice it was usually bunched up in a day or two, not spread out as a couple of hours per day, but that depends on your style.

A lot of that time is spent looking up information in the textbook or other resources, so it's not like you literally spend 10 hours a week putting pencil to paper. But the point is that basically all the studying you do can be done in the context of a homework assignment, even if you don't sit down and do problems for the fun of it.

 

[Nabeshin]

For a 3.8 - 4.0 GPA I would suggest to study for 50 hours a week outside of class during undergraduate school.

This seems ridiculous. I certainly do not study this much. Average time for a problem set for me is ~2-10 hours, 10 hour+ ones being quite rare. Median maybe 5 hours.

As far as studying beyond doing coursework goes, I only do this if I don't understand what's going on in lecture. If everything makes sense to me, there's really no reason to read the textbook (although it's still good to reinforce, it's just not a priority).

Threads like this pop up quite often, and always the response is the same: It depends on you. You know your own study habits and how effective they are better than anyone else. So experiment with it. Don't think that once you get to university you cannot "afford" to experiment with different study styles. If some way doesn't work well for you, you will find out during the first midterm and can easily change things for the second one (although hopefully you have an idea of how it's going before the midterm).

 

[Leveret]

How long do you usually study for?

As long as it takes to learn the material--or, if I have more pressing things to do, as long as I can spare. There's no magic number for how much one must study to earn a particular grade. If you intuitively understand E&M right off the bat, there's really no need for you to spend much time studying it. On the other hand, if thermo is giving you trouble, you may have to put in more time than usual.

It doesn't matter how much time the average student, your friends, your roommate, or the guy at top of the class spends studying. You should spend however much time studying that it takes to learn the material thoroughly. If you're making high A's on only 2 hours a week, there's no point in killing yourself trying to match Bobby's 10 hours/day. I know this sounds like a cop-out answer, but within a month or two of entering college, you'll probably have a rough idea of how much you personally need to study. Hopefully, this will make more sense by then.

 

[Klockan3]

Seriously though, if by "studying" you mean staring at a textbook, that's pretty useless. You can conceivably get away with it in high school because high school physics classes are a joke (at least, if yours is anything like mine was), but for college-level science and math, pretty much the only effective way to study is by doing problems.

What's with this attitude? Reading the textbook is certainly a good way to study if you focus when doing it. I think the biggest reason people prefer doing problems over reading is that the progress is much more tangible, like "I did 9 problems today!" rather than "Today i got a better understanding of this concept". Doing problems can work, but it can just as well trick you into believing that you understand things when you actually just learned a set of algorithms.

 

[Farmergregor]

My routine is to spend an hour studying for each class Mon-Thurs. This can vary depending on my workload in each class, but I have never had to spend more than 20 hours a week working to maintain a decent GPA outside of the two weeks preceding finals.

My process of study for the one hour sessions is "Study concepts --> Do assigned problems --> Do extra problems if time allows"

 

[clope023]

What's with this attitude? Reading the textbook is certainly a good way to study if you focus when doing it. I think the biggest reason people prefer doing problems over reading is that the progress is much more tangible, like "I did 9 problems today!" rather than "Today i got a better understanding of this concept". Doing problems can work, but it can just as well trick you into believing that you understand things when you actually just learned a set of algorithms.

Yeah cause "Today the problems I did gave me a very clear understanding of the concept" never happens

 

[diazona]

What's with this attitude? Reading the textbook is certainly a good way to study if you focus when doing it. I think the biggest reason people prefer doing problems over reading is that the progress is much more tangible, like "I did 9 problems today!" rather than "Today i got a better understanding of this concept". Doing problems can work, but it can just as well trick you into believing that you understand things when you actually just learned a set of algorithms.

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but for me the reason to prefer doing problems over just reading has absolutely nothing to do with progress being tangible. In fact, you could be unable to complete a single one of those 9 problems, and even though that represents no tangible progress at all, it could still be a better learning experience than reading the textbook by itself.

It depends on the person of course, but generally speaking, unless the material is relatively easy, people don't learn by just reading. You have to actually use the concepts you're reading about, not just because that's the only way to judge how well you've really learned them, but also because the process of using them (and getting them wrong at first) "implants" them in your brain. It's like learning how to use a complex computer program: you can read the documentation straight through with as much focus as you can muster, but in the end you won't have anything more than a vague idea of how to actually use the program until after you open it up and start playing with it.

There is a chance that by doing problems you'll just come up with a set of algorithms that let you get the answer, but it won't be long until you reach a problem where your algorithms don't work. That's when you go back to the textbook to get a better understanding of the concepts involved, from which you can improve your algorithm. And once you reach the point at which your algorithm does work for every problem, you will have learned enough

 

[Klockan3]

There is a chance that by doing problems you'll just come up with a set of algorithms that let you get the answer, but it won't be long until you reach a problem where your algorithms don't work. That's when you go back to the textbook to get a better understanding of the concepts involved, from which you can improve your algorithm. And once you reach the point at which your algorithm does work for every problem, you will have learned enough

I am sorry, but it doesn't work that way. People in general learn very little when studying physics or equivalent even if they get good grades. Thus it isn't hard to study by doing problems without getting much understanding at all but still getting good grades, and don't come saying that this doesn't work for higher level courses since it does. You do get some understanding, of course, but solving problems is not an efficient way to understand things.

Yeah cause "Today the problems I did gave me a very clear understanding of the concept" never happens

Read my text again, nowhere did I say that it was impossible, just that it isn't what usually happens. What usually happens is that people trick themselves into believing that they have understood a concept.

 

[zif.]

Rule of thumb as an undergraduate:

Add up the total number of credits you're taking in a semester, and multiply by three.

That is the average number of hours you should expect to spend on school per week, including class time. For example, this semester I'm taking 18 credits. So ideally, 54 hours per week.

This includes 18 hours of class time, so 36 hours average for homework and studying.

However, I log my hours to get an idea of how on track I am.

This semester I averaged ~42 hours per week of school, including class time and labs.

I'm well short of 54 hours, and I believe this is reflected in the fact that I'll be getting a mix of B's and A's as opposed to all A's.

 

[joej24]

That's a lot of hours. It seems exciting. How do you suppose Einstein studied? Do you think he did things differently? I heard he read scientific papers for fun.

 

[xxChrisxx]

Rule of thumb for the UK is:

A 10 credit module (120 credits per academic year) should take about 100 hours to complete. (lectures, labs and self study). The upshot of this is about 42 hours a week over a semester. So a working week.

Although I did motorsports engineering and that's not counting all the hours spent in the garage, and down the pub discussing engines etc. Some of our most productive work was done over a pint.


When doing projects and especially the dissertation, it takes over your life. Even when you aren't working, you can't help but think about it. Even when taking a break the work is always at the back of your mind.

 

[DivisionByZro]

Perhaps I'm wrong in general, but I think the difference between a hard-working and a passionate student is that the hard-working student puts in the hours, and then calls it a day. Whereas the passionate student never punches in nor does he punch out. He's always thinking about his subject. I don't think school should be an 8-5 job where you're done after 5 and you can forget about everything.

This truly marks the difference between some of my peers. Some ask questions such as: "How long did the assignment take to complete?", whereas others might ask "Were there interesting problems on the assignment? What did the solution look like?". I'm not saying the hard-working student is inferior here. I'm just saying that there never really is a "fixed" number of hours like a 40-hour job. School is much different than that; or at least it should be.

 

[clope023]

My opinion is to study the least amount that let's you understand the material to the point where you can answer questions skillfully, and only add more work when it's necessary. The least amount needed will vary of course, it might not be a small amount at all.

 

[Ryker]

My opinion is to study the least amount that let's you understand the material to the point where you can answer questions skillfully, and only add more work when it's necessary. The least amount needed will vary of course, it might not be a small amount at all.

I agree fully, and I think this is a good approach that leaves flexibility for if and when you do need to crank it up a bit.

 

[micromass]

To be honest, I NEVER made any problems while studying. So I never completed any problems until my final exams. I did make sure that I understood the material completely however! And I managed to get excellent grades...

I don't recommend my method to anybody, but I just tell this to reassure people who don't tend to do a lot of problems. Everybody has his own method of studying, there is no "best" way of studying. If you're a practical person, then you will like problems. If you're a theoretical person, then you can study without those...