Studying What is the ideal amount of time to study for a difficult college course?

[JasonRox]

I'd say just love/curiosity for the material. The love comes naturally. It's the curisoity that drives the time spent studying. If you are studying for materialistic purposes then you may be able to study for intense period but will eventually get sick of it in the long term. Although it depends how materialistic you are.

What the hell are you talking about?

You can love the stuff and still not be efficiently studying. You can love the stuff and still get bored studying it. That's just the way it is. What does materialism have anything to do with it? I have absolutely no idea. I know materialistic people who can study without any problems.

If you want to be efficient about studying, it's all about practicing. Keep studying. Try something new. It's just like working out or jogging. You have to practice and practice and eventually you'll get better.

Passion and love can only take you so far. You have to do the rest of the work yourself. It won't just happen naturally, so I have no idea where you got this from.

 

[jostpuur]

What the hell are you talking about?

That was slightly too provocative. Pivoxa15 of course had a point there.

My problem is certainly not a materialistic attitude in studying. I am genuinely interested in mathematics and physics. In mathematics my problem is that it is difficult to remain motivated, when I don't understand the benefits of some definitions or theorems. In physics my problem is that the explanations are too confusing for me to understand, and I am not convinced that it is always my own fault.

So my question was meant to mean, that how can you remain motivated, when obstacles such as these start to come on the way.

 

[JasonRox]

That was slightly too provocative. Pivoxa15 of course had a point there.

My problem is certainly not a materialistic attitude in studying. I am genuinely interested in mathematics and physics. In mathematics my problem is that it is difficult to remain motivated, when I don't understand the benefits of some definitions or theorems. In physics my problem is that the explanations are too confusing for me to understand, and I am not convinced that it is always my own fault.

So my question was meant to mean, that how can you remain motivated, when obstacles such as these start to come on the way.

Loving it isn't going to help under the purpose of a theorem any better. Loving it isn't going to help you understand the explanations in physics.

Like I said, it has very little to do with love or passion to study efficiently.

Also, like I said, it's like jogging. You can hate jogging more than anything in the world, but if you jog everyday, you'll get better just because. Same thing with studying.

 

[jostpuur]

Also, like I said, it's like jogging. You can hate jogging more than anything in the world, but if you jog everyday, you'll get better just because. Same thing with studying.

By strange coincidence, I've had difficulty deciding if my feelings towards physics are closer to love or hate.

 

[ice109]

Open question:

If you have to study extremely hard to understand something, do you think you are really cut out for that subject?

I guess I'm not talking about working hard to get a good grade and a job in a bank, or the like, after uni -- some people do work hard at things which don't come naturally to them to achieve these goals.

It's more directed at people who want to go on to have careers in academic subjects.

I don't know about physics, but for me, maths has always been quite simple to understand -- through elementary school I breezed it, coming up with formulas before we'd been taught them, without really trying for them. And, at uni, I didn't have to work too hard -- apart from possibly fluid dynamic type subjects; I found the complex analysis type subjects sat quite easy with me after looking at them a few times, although was never really interested in them. My PhD didn't cause me too much stress either.

We can only talk from our own experiences, but if I had to sit down and really work all day on something to understand it, I think I'd leave it alone -- perhaps that's a sign of impatience. Or, perhaps, I like projects to evolve at a natural rate, I don't want to naively try to understand something in X amount of days. I like to learn at a nice relaxed rate

if it didn't challenge you, your phd, why did you do it?

 

[JasonRox]

if it didn't challenge you, your phd, why did you do it?

He's talking about something different.

 

[ice109]

He's talking about something different.

what? is it something other than what his posts says because i read the post...

 

[pivoxa15]

What the hell are you talking about?

You can love the stuff and still not be efficiently studying. You can love the stuff and still get bored studying it. That's just the way it is. What does materialism have anything to do with it? I have absolutely no idea. I know materialistic people who can study without any problems.

If you want to be efficient about studying, it's all about practicing. Keep studying. Try something new. It's just like working out or jogging. You have to practice and practice and eventually you'll get better.

Passion and love can only take you so far. You have to do the rest of the work yourself. It won't just happen naturally, so I have no idea where you got this from.

jostpuur was asking daniel_i_l how he/she can put so much time into study.
So I was only answering that question. It may be that daniel_i_l's time spent studying is inefficient.

Efficiency does keep practice but if you practice into the long terms than that drive to succeed will most easily come from love for the material.

 

[pivoxa15]

That was slightly too provocative. Pivoxa15 of course had a point there.

My problem is certainly not a materialistic attitude in studying. I am genuinely interested in mathematics and physics. In mathematics my problem is that it is difficult to remain motivated, when I don't understand the benefits of some definitions or theorems. In physics my problem is that the explanations are too confusing for me to understand, and I am not convinced that it is always my own fault.

So my question was meant to mean, that how can you remain motivated, when obstacles such as these start to come on the way.

Love is a broad word. Another important and more specific word is intrinsic. Study for intrinsic purposes. A lot of the time people do things to be competitive. Sport is a prime example. Study can be as well especially in undergrad and more so in high school. You may want to study more to get good grades in order to impress your peers or future career prospects. You may not think about them directly but these things drive everyone and there is silent voice in your brain telling you to do something else that you may succeed in. Hence you get discouraged from your maths and physics. At least that's what happens to me often. I know some people who succeeded in high school but went backwards in uni because the competitiveness was gone.

However recently there did come a time when I studied too much during semester and just couldn't do any self study during the holidays. But I have the feeling that I had been too materialistic in my attitude during semester as I was aiming for certain marks and that took its toll later on. So now I am going for a different attitude, one that is more intrinsic. I like Feynman's quote "Know how to solve every problem that has been solved." As opposed to do only the problems in your subject or area you are paid in. And also do them no matter how frustraing they may be. And don't get discouraged no matter how easily someone else can do a problem you are stuck on.

I also like the advice by Terry Tao.

Its all easy said then done I have to admit.

 

[pivoxa15]

Loving it isn't going to help under the purpose of a theorem any better. Loving it isn't going to help you understand the explanations in physics.

Like I said, it has very little to do with love or passion to study efficiently.

Also, like I said, it's like jogging. You can hate jogging more than anything in the world, but if you jog everyday, you'll get better just because. Same thing with studying.

I was only claiming that love can help you spend more time on the thing that you love, that's all.

 

[J77]

if it didn't challenge you, your phd, why did you do it?

Not being stressed about something is not the same as it not being a challenge.

 

[Llama77]

in my undergrad i spent a min of 12 hrs a day at the librry studying all subjects each and every day.

 

[Sojourner01]

in my undergrad i spent a min of 12 hrs a day at the librry studying all subjects each and every day.

I would have called that a borderline case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you were a friend of mine I would have urged you to a psychiatrist.

 

[rocomath]

i study an avg a day of 3hrs mon-thurs & 5hrs fri-sun. but 12hrs a day? wtf ... slap yours3lf

 

[Werg22]

The amount of time one spends on exploring a subject is less important than the way someone explores it. Some are just naturally adept at exploring a certain subject in a way that is very efficiently. An adept person might learn more in 10 min than a mediocre in a year. This has nothing to do with the amount the two acquire, but rather the depth of their perceptions.

 

[Llama77]

I would have called that a borderline case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you were a friend of mine I would have urged you to a psychiatrist.

thats what it takes for me to get C's in school. I can't help it,

 

[Werg22]

If that's what it takes for you to get a C, you are studying in fundamentally flawed way.

 

[threetheoreom]

If that's what it takes for you to get a C, you are studying in fundamentally flawed way.

So more generally what attitude should one have when it comes to studying (regardless of love or competition) and what is considered good study habits?

 

[ice109]

If that's what it takes for you to get a C, you are studying in fundamentally flawed way.

i think he's exaggerating. no one could possibly study 12 hours a day and get a C. i can't imagine anything that doesn't become transparent after a couple of hours, let alone half a day.

 

[JasonRox]

i think he's exaggerating. no one could possibly study 12 hours a day and get a C. i can't imagine anything that doesn't become transparent after a couple of hours, let alone half a day.

If you're studying 3 hours or more a day and still only crack a C, you're not really that cut out for it.

 

[ice109]

If you're studying 3 hours or more a day and still only crack a C, you're not really that cut out for it.

i think that's a really silly statement

 

[cristo]

i think that's a really silly statement

I think it's quite realistic. Three hours study every day, on top of attending classes, is a large amount of study. Doing this amount of work for an entire year, and still only managing to scape mediocre grades does seem to imply that they are either not cut out for the subject, or that they are going about studying in the incorrect way.

 

[ice109]

I think it's quite realistic. Three hours study every day, on top of attending classes, is a large amount of study. Doing this amount of work for an entire year, and still only managing to scape mediocre grades does seem to imply that they are either not cut out for the subject, or that they are going about studying in the incorrect way.

the latter is quite possible, the former is a mean thought

 

[symbolipoint]

Expand your awareness here. What is difficult for some people could be a tough but manageable challenge for other people. This generally is the "being cut out for" the subject, but if the student's interest is strong, he may be unwilling to change direction in chosen major field of study. A fully strong effort for a difficult course through the first time might earn a C; the same fully strong effort in the same course through this course the second time will yield a B - or it should, if the student is repeating the particular course and gave full efforts in both terms. Now, if the student does not earn a better grade the second time than the first, then something is wrong.

How much time per week should someone study a difficult typical undergraduate lower division course? I'd say that for a difficult course at that level, maybe 2 or more hours per day, 6 days per week should be enough the successfully pass (with a C minimum.). If this be a repeat of the course, then B minimum. Twelve hours of study on one course per week should be reasonable if the student is very concerned about the need to succeed in it. Maybe MORE than 12 hours per week if the student is really so motivated.