1
126990
on average how many hours of homework do you have per hours of class, as well as per hours of lab?
N
njbmd
This question is very "school-dependent". At my undergraduate institution, both of these courses required a minimum of 15 to 20 hours per week per course outside of lecture and laboratory for good master - even more for excellent performance. I took both as a freshman and easily spent 40 hours or more a week doing homework and preparing for these courses and their labs.
General Chemistry can have a huge number of problems to be solved in addition to concepts that need to be mastered and lab reports that need to be written. General Biology, while lighter on problems, can be quite heavy on concept mastery in addition to written lab reports and projects/papers.
If you are a full-time undergraduate, you should pair these two with lighter courses that do not demand loads of time (meaning no other lab courses). I certainly would not pair them with Calculus unless you are very adept at problem-solving as homework from Calculus, General Chem and Gen Bio can be fairly heavy as a group.
1
126990
what school did you do undergrad at?
also, how many hours do you remember your classes, as well as the labs, being? thx.
also, how many hours do you remember your classes, as well as the labs, being? thx.
C
cheezer
gen chem 1/2 w/lab are very time consuming classes. like njbmd said, you need to spend hours doing problems to gain a good mastery of it. i'm taking chem 2 right now and i spend about 15-20 hours a week outside of class just doing problems. so in a regular semester, i suppose that's about 10 hours a week?? and that's if you know what you're doing. some of my classmates really struggle w/ the hw. gen chem labs are also a great deal of work for very little units. anyways, if you want an A and aren't some genius problem solver, this is what it takes.
i can't speak for bio yet. haven't taken it.
i can't speak for bio yet. haven't taken it.
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I resemble the hours cited in the aforementioned posts.
I put in a lot of time in Gen Chem and Bio (as many hours as the more advanced coursework.)
I generally earn A's or A-'s. The non-science courses were much easier for me as a nontraditional student. Everything but public speaking and I blame that on a nasty passive-aggressive professor.
I put in a lot of time in Gen Chem and Bio (as many hours as the more advanced coursework.)
I generally earn A's or A-'s. The non-science courses were much easier for me as a nontraditional student. Everything but public speaking and I blame that on a nasty passive-aggressive professor.
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I spent basically one day a week to do gen chem and bio hwk, with lots of breaks and my 3 year old distracting me. I also spent 1 evening/wk doing "catch up".
Most of that time was doing lab reports, for me, for some reason getting my data just the way my instructor wanted it took FOREVER, and bio also had some research to it.
Studying for class: my chem instructor had spectacular structure to his course, so if I did the hwk and quizzes the way he wanted, my study time for exams was minimal (less than 5 hrs/exam). For bio, I read the chapter and did the quizzes that came w/ the book (online), total time, maybe 10 hrs/exam.
I skated by, I think, on less time than others because I took orgo before I took chem II and bio II, and a lot of questions/topics already made sense to me because of that. On the other hand, I had to do zillions of problems in organic, and ate, slept and breathed organic, because I hadn't taken bio II and chem II when I took it.
Most of that time was doing lab reports, for me, for some reason getting my data just the way my instructor wanted it took FOREVER, and bio also had some research to it.
Studying for class: my chem instructor had spectacular structure to his course, so if I did the hwk and quizzes the way he wanted, my study time for exams was minimal (less than 5 hrs/exam). For bio, I read the chapter and did the quizzes that came w/ the book (online), total time, maybe 10 hrs/exam.
I skated by, I think, on less time than others because I took orgo before I took chem II and bio II, and a lot of questions/topics already made sense to me because of that. On the other hand, I had to do zillions of problems in organic, and ate, slept and breathed organic, because I hadn't taken bio II and chem II when I took it.
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Unfortunately there is no way to predict how long it will take you to learn the material. For me everything changed depending on the topic. Labs took me longer to prepare for per credit hour. Generally, if you study to teach to someone else, you have the correct level of depth. The class that I was a GTA for in bio was told to plan on 20 hours a week. Grades and requirements to do well depends on the instructor. Find out who prepares the students best for further work. Sometimes this is difficult for labs because they are often taught by grad students at some schools. Bio took more time for me to study than chemistry. Look at it according to master of concepts rather than time and you will do better and enjoy it more.
