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15+ hours of homework a week from one class, unreasonable?
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Post by
TheMediator
Usually, I spend less than 30 minutes a week on homework for each class and manage to get As in most of my class, but I've taken this course Statistical Data Analysis II, and it just seems like a dramatic jump from the level of work required to get everything done compared to all other classes. A good chunk of my weekend and monday have been blown away just working on the assignment for this one specific class. I don't know if all my beginning classes have been carebear or if this class is just way out of the line (I suppose it might explain why the course is only offered in the Spring and there's about 10 people in the class, when most classes have around 30-70 people in them). What do you think?
Post by
Orranis
Dude...
Half an hour a week?
I've been doing all-weekend-and-a-bit-more assignments since sixth grade! No, it's one big temporary project. It's not unreasonable.
Post by
343569
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Adamsm
All depends on the class.
Post by
TheMediator
The problem is... it isn't a rare thing. The grade for the class is entirely project based - there are no tests at all, which at first glance might sound great, but I'd trade 15+ hours a week for a bombard of tests no questions asked. I suppose that's partially because I'm great at taking tests though, and partially because I don't like projects since it seems like they're also made more difficult than they should be because the professor expects people to get outside help (which I don't, I want to learn how to actually get *!@# done so I do it on my own). The professor claims that its more like what you'd experience in the work place - taking sets of data and then pumping out charts, graphs, histograms, looking for significant correlations between variables within the data, etc. etc., but still, it doesn't make for the best educational system in my opinion.
It just seems like a huge jump up in effort compared to Statistical Data Analysis I, which I basically snoozed through and got a 99 in. I suppose it might be easier if we got more practice using R (the programming language for the software) though, because half the trouble seems to be figuring out how to do something before I can actually start doing work.
Post by
Monday
Hmm... My geography class is the same. Luckily none of my other classes really require much, but my geography class requires me tos tay after school for 2+ hours, coming in early and doing stuff on saturday/sunday along with homework. I just have to live with it, and work as hard as I can.
After all that class is only one semester right?
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
For my entire college life I was at about 3 hours of study for every hour of class time (so 9 hours a week for the average 4 credit class). I don't think 15 hours is unreasonable. Tough? Yes.
Post by
Squishalot
15 hours is a little harsh for a single class, but not that bad (not sure what college in the US is like, but we have average 4x3-credit point classes per semester, or 3x4cp classes).
At the end of the day though, your total study time should be about 3-4 hours per credit point, or 12-16 hours per 4cp unit, including class time. 15 hours a week is a bit above, but it's not completely unreasonable.
I think your earlier courses were just too carebear, as so many are nowadays.
The professor claims that its more like what you'd experience in the work place - taking sets of data and then pumping out charts, graphs, histograms, looking for significant correlations between variables within the data, etc. etc., but still, it doesn't make for the best educational system in my opinion.
You didn't do that in Stats I? Perhaps it's the difference between Australian/American unis, or the fact that I was forced into a slightly more advanced 1st year Stats course, but you should've done all that in the earlier subject.
R is awful though. Give me Matlab any day, or even Minitab is better. If you're forced to use R, and it's all project based (i.e. professor isn't going to see what you do), consider downloading
Rattle
, a fairly nice free toolkit for R that's designed for statistical analysis and data mining.
Oh, don't worry about the software being malware or anything - it's actually developed by the head of data mining at the Australian Tax Office (equivalent of the US IRS).
Post by
TheMediator
We used minitab in Stats I. And yeah, forced to use R. Whatever, I'm starting to get the hang of it better, didn't really get at first that the whole language seems entirely based on vector operations, but some of it can still be a pain in the ass to do.
Post by
TheMediator
I'm pretty much going to be defeated by this class. The workload seems to be getting bigger over time, not smaller.
Post by
Squishalot
How much work are you doing for your other classes?
Post by
Nitewalkr
Usually, I spend less than 30 minutes a week on homework for each class and manage to get As in most of my class, but I've taken this course Statistical Data Analysis II, and it just seems like a dramatic jump from the level of work required to get everything done compared to all other classes. A good chunk of my weekend and monday have been blown away just working on the assignment for this one specific class. I don't know if all my beginning classes have been carebear or if this class is just way out of the line (I suppose it might explain why the course is only offered in the Spring and there's about 10 people in the class, when most classes have around 30-70 people in them). What do you think?
This only means that you havent understood what the teacher is trying to teach or the teacher didnt explain it well or he might want you to think outside the box and use your way to learn it........
I practically study most of my day...even at work so I cant answer this properly. But I used to spend like 5 hours aday studying pre-graduation.
Post by
TheMediator
This only means that you havent understood what the teacher is trying to teach or the teacher didnt explain it well or he might want you to think outside the box and use your way to learn it........
No. It is just straight up work. I get whats going on in R now for the most part, but it is still just a %^&* ton of work to do.
How much work are you doing for your other classes?
Accounting II - About 30-45 minutes of work a week outside class (mostly because its so tedious) - A
Differential Equations - About 30 minutes of work a week outside class (although I heard it gets harder) - A
Business Stats - About 0-15 minutes of work a week outside class - A
Business Law - Haven't had any actual work in the class yet since its all test based and haven't had a test yet
I'm not some retard or something, when it comes to mathematics I'm a ****ing wizard, which is why I made this thread - because its such a huge jump in work
for me
.
Post by
301983
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
pezz
It might just be that most math is a priori, whereas statistics is empirical and tedious (a philosophy major's bias? Yes please), which is going to mean more work for someone who is exceptionally good at the a priori stuff. You might be able to breeze through Calculus, but pages and pages of data points are pages and pages of data points.
You also pointed out that it's a different style of class. Not test based, but big project based. That makes perfect sense for a statistics class, but it also definitely means more work.
Post by
Squishalot
Accounting II - About 30-45 minutes of work a week outside class (mostly because its so tedious) - A
Differential Equations - About 30 minutes of work a week outside class (although I heard it gets harder) - A
Business Stats - About 0-15 minutes of work a week outside class - A
Business Law - Haven't had any actual work in the class yet since its all test based and haven't had a test yet
I'm not some retard or something, when it comes to mathematics I'm a ****ing wizard, which is why I made this thread - because its such a huge jump in work for me.
I know, wasn't accusing you of being a retard. Just pointing out that in total, you're doing:
15 (Statistics) + 1 (Accounting) + 1 (Maths) + 1 (Business Stats) + 5 x 4 (assuming 4 contact hours per week per class) = 38 hours a week of total study time (rounding up all fractions). Realistically, that's not that bad. That's less than a full time job.
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