Summer School 2017

Give Yourself a Reasonable Workload.

One major cause of students not succeeding is an unreasonable expectation concerning the amount of time college requires. Some students give themselves such as unreasonable workload that success is nearly impossible. It’s not unusual for an instructor to hear a student say something like “I’m sorry that I did not complete the assignments, but I work full time, go to school full time, and take care of three children.”

The general rule is that you should expect to spend a minimum of two hours working on assignments outside of class for every hour that you spend in class. So imagine that you are taking 12 credit hours. This number of credit hours requires that you spend at least 10 hours a week attending class, along with at least 20 hours a week working on assignments outside of class (remember that this is a minimum!). And you probably spend at least five hours a week getting ready for class and driving to and from the college. That’s 35 hours a week as a minimum amount of time you need to devote to your classes, and that’s about the equivalent of a full-time job. Now imagine having a full-time job as well.

I can’t imagine someone thinking that he or she should have no problem working two full-time jobs, yet many students think that they should have no problems handling a full-time job and a full load of college courses. These expectations are unreasonable, and they often lead to failure.

Don’t set yourself up to fail. Realize that a successful college experience takes a lot of time, probably a lot more time that 35 hours a week for a full-time student. Give yourself a reasonable workload, and you should greatly increase your likelihood for success.