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Re: On Light: Surviving College



A few more cents.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Cooper [mailto:jcooper@BUCKNELL.EDU]


. . .

At 08:50 PM 06/11/2001 -0500, brian whatcott wrote:

Richard J Light wrote a book called "Making the Most of College:
Students Speak their Minds" HUP $25



"Every day has three halves: morning afternoon and evening.
And if I can
devote any one of these three blocks of time to getting my
academic work
done, I consider that day a success." Light endorses this
undergraduate's
idea of spending appreciable time in one block on study, and not
snacking on study.

Forty-years ago I found to survive I had to budget my
time in blocks
of hours or more for each class. A sixty-hour week, including classes
and labs was pretty much routine. I wonder what the typical protocol
is these days.


Students can find from many sources, that the "accepted" rule of thumb is
two hours outside of class for each hour of lecture. (See for example the
preface in Serway&Faugn College Physics, or the advice in our Universities
one credit "how to be a student" course, or many other sources.

I find this troubling, as I think it becomes interpreted as the maximum
amount necessary, and that amount should guarrantee an 'A' grade. I found
many of my courses, particularly physics and some math courses to require
more like 3 or 4 out of class hours per in-class hour.

I think the advice is sending the wrong message; although I suspect the
defence is that this is advice being given to students who are anticipating
spending 0-20 minutes of outside time, and certainly two hours would be
better than that, and perhaps the advice serves as a bit of a "heads-up".



Joel Rauber