(This page was stolen from http://www.advising.jhu.edu/handbook.html, page 10)
Everyone expects
that they will have to work harder to do well at HKBU. It is not just more
competition or more reading that you will need to deal with. College education
turns how you learned in high school on its head. The key differences
between learning at HKBU and your high school are: 1) learning does not take
place primarily in the classroom; and 2) you, not your professor, are
responsible for what you learn.
In high school you
were in class about 35 hours each week. If you spent an additional 15 hours
each week studying outside of school, that’s 50 hours a week that you devoted
to learning in high school. At HKBU you will spend about 20 hours each week in
class. Your professors will expect you to keep up with the quick pace by
studying at least 30 hours each week on your own. You spend far less time in
class in college than you did in high school, 15 hours less each week. You
should especially note that you are responsible for planning how you will
use 30 of those 50 hours. In high school, your teacher planned 35 of
the 50 hours you spent each week on learning. This is an enormous
difference in who is responsible for learning and in how you need to use your
time outside of class.
Look next at how
class time is used in high school versus college. In high school, your teacher
often spent time going over the assigned reading and the assigned problems in
class or going over important points again and again. In high school, the
teacher takes responsibility for helping you to learn the basic facts.
In a college classroom,
the professor expects that everyone has already read the assigned material and
done the assigned problems before coming to class. The professor will not go
over the material point by point. Class time is devoted to building upon the
basic facts, discussing implications and applications, or sharing some recent
development that represents a new twist on an old idea.
If you come to
class without doing the assignments first, you probably won’t understand the
discussion because it assumes that you already know the basics. With each class
that you are not prepared for, you fall further and further behind.
Take heart. You can
succeed at HKBU. The key is to understand how important your time is and to use
it well. Think of this as a full-time job with regular 9 to 5 hours. You will
be in class for some of those hours and you will be having lunch during that
time too. Use the other hours for studying (not napping).
If you have sports
or club activities during the day, then you will need to schedule some evening
hours to make up for that time. If you are a night person who studies best
while burning the midnight oil, fine. Schedule your study time at night. But
remember to include about eight hours of sleep and time for breakfast and
dinner too.
Here are some tips
for using your learning time effectively.
Can anyone really
do this? Well, there are 168 hours in a week. If you use 50 of them for
learning, and 56 for sleeping, that leaves 62 hours each week for the fun
stuff. You really can do it all. Get yourself a good school planner, do your
scheduling, and have a great year!