Do you learn less on the quarter system?

Applying to College
1

<p>Say a course like Introduction to Psychology. Since the quarter system is ten weeks while the semester system is sixteen weeks, do you learn less on the quarter system? Do teachers tend to rush through the course and/or leave certain topics out?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>No.</p>

<p>Often the material that would be covered in two semester courses that meet three times each week, is covered in three quarter courses that meet three times a week.</p>

<p>What does happen with the quarter system is that there is less time between the first day of class and the final exams. You need to really keep on top of things. The calendar is less forgiving.</p>

3

<p>It depends on the university, the department, and the courses themselves. Sometimes the material is shuffled and distributed across different courses, so it boils down to the same material of 2 semesters spread across 3 quarters. Other times the material of 1 semester class is squeezed into 1 quarter, meaning the class moves faster and requires you to master the material at a quicker pace, so you actually end up learning more in a 3-quarter period. Still other times they do a combination of the two–shuffling some material while cramming more material into 10 weeks than what you’d cover in the first 10 weeks of a semester. </p>

<p>At Stanford, for example, this condensing of material tends to be the case: the classes move more quickly, forcing you to stay focused hard on the material to get it down in time, without compromising the depth of study required for the material. This is how some top schools like Stanford mitigate the rampant grade inflation that comes with higher selectivity: keep the students on their toes by making the class structure harder, the material rigorous, and (in the end) the grades high.</p>

<p>Often on the quarter system, material “overflow” can be pushed to the sections/discussions, projects/papers/assignments, and independent study. That’s why office hours for both professors and TAs tend to be very important as well. These out-of-class avenues also allow students to interact with the material enough so that it doesn’t seem as though they’re just rushing through. Inevitably, though, the quarter system will feel very fast and each term is over before you know it.</p>

<p>But IMO this is why the quarter system is better than the semester system: you take more classes, you often learn more, and you’re kept on your toes to get the depth of the material at a quicker pace.</p>

<p>(For the record, I don’t think this is how it is at most quarter system schools. This increase in intensity is true only if they think the students can handle it, which tends to be the case at more selective schools.)</p>

4

<p>So when you’re transferring from a quarter system school to one that operates on the semester system, why do your credits become less? </p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

5

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<p>The course may be “smaller” (less material), or it may have more class time per week to cover the same material, or it may be split over two quarters (covering more material, or with less class time per week to cover the same material), compared to a single semester system course.</p>

<p>Overall, you should theoretically learn the same amount of material, but it is likely to be organized differently in making it into quarter versus semester courses.</p>

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</p>

<p>1 quarter credit = 2/3 semester credit</p>

<p>However, the typical graduation requirement is 180 quarter credits or 120 semester credits. You are expected to take 15 credits per term, or 45 quarter credits per year at a quarter system school, or 30 semester credits per year at a semester system school.</p>

<p>The biggest issue with transferring is that if you take a partial sequence of something like math or physics, you may have to partially repeat a course for which you have partial credit. For example, freshman calculus is split into three courses in a quarter system and two courses in a semester system (but overall the same amount of instruction and material learned). If you take two quarters of freshman calculus and then transfer to a semester school, you may have to take the second semester there, partially repeating the second quarter you took before.</p>

6

<p>Why don’t they bear the same weight? </p>

<p>After all, a student on the quarter system may be learning the same amount as a student on the semester system on a particular course which both of them are taking. So why does 1 quarter credit have to equal to 2/3 semester credit if you might be learning the same amount?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

7

<p>It’s just a matter of scheduling. They will adjust the days and hours the class meets according to the requirements necessary for teaching the material.</p>

8

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<p>If you have 100 cents, 20 nickels, 10 dimes, or 4 quarters, you have the same amount of money.</p>

<p>Semester versus quarter credits (or other ways of describing course credit at schools) all add up to (theoretically) the same amount of course work at graduation. (Theoretically in that different courses, or the same courses at different schools, may have more or less content or workload, even if they are nominally the same credits. But that is not a semester versus quarter system issue.)</p>