I really don't understand why they make quarter system people take 3 English classes. A quarter system class (at my school) and a semester system class are actually the same thing...same number of hours in class and content covered. At our school, quarter system classes are 5 units which is equal to 3-4 semester units (which I hear is what a normal semester class is anyways).
Because a quarter is shorter, they have more hours of class per week (which is why people only take 3-4 classes in the quarter system), but over the entire term, it is the same total number of hours as a semester class.