<p>I’m currently student in high school.
I have a question about the life in college.</p>
<p>1)How big is the classroom?
2)How do you do the labs for science classes?
3)How many hours do you study and How many days do you take classes per week?
4)Are the quizzes and tests are harder than high school?
5)How are the community bathrooms?
6)What are the best ways to get good grades?</p>
<p>PLEASE INDICATE THE COLLEGES.</p>
<p>EBHSSAT, almost all the answers to your questions are highly subjective. Have you decided where you want to go? In that case you might get more specific answers.</p>
<p>Of course the quizzes and tests are harder than in high school :)</p>
<p>Honestly, they’re all different everywhere. So I agree with spunkypundit, you should tell us what colleges you’re interested in and see if we can help from there. </p>
<p>Though for number 2, most labs are either on a different day than your class, or they’re added on (another hour or more) on one day a week. Again: it’s different depending on different classes. </p>
<p>For 3, again: depends. Depends on your major. Depends on how many of which classes are available (for general eds, you can usually bet there’ll be 10 or more options at bigger schools for times to take it, and you can schedule it so that maybe you have classes 3 days a week, 2 days a week, or 5 days a week.) As for studying: again, depends. Everything depends (that goes for number 4 too, depends on how hard the class is and what you as an individual are good at. For me, a chem quiz would be a killer, but for someone else, it’d be an English quiz that I thought was really easy).</p>
<p>5- depends on the school. I think community bathrooms in general suck, but I believe most are kept clean. I’m not sure what else you want to know about them.</p>
<p>6- Best way to get good grades? STUDY. Talk to your professors if you have questions. Hell, talk to your professors in general and get to know them (that might help your grades because if they know who you are, know how much you study, you <em>might</em> be able to get a few extra liberties that others don’t. Example: I had wisdom teeth taken out and decided to go to one of my classes to take a quiz. My professor knows who I am because I go to class early and talk to her. She sent me home and let me take the quiz the following week. Will all professors be like that? Absolutely not. But it doesn’t hurt to get to know them.) </p>
<p>Sorry if this isn’t particularly helpful…but again, we need to know what colleges you’re looking at so you can get more specific answers :)</p>
<p>okay some of your answers change from person to person at the same college not to mention college to college.</p>
<p>1) I’ve been in a 300 person lecture hall, and I’ve been taught in a 30 person classroom. There are much larger ones at larger schools too.
3)I know people who only have classes 4 days a week, and people who don’t really study at all during the week, but just basically do work around tests, etc.</p>
<p>The one I can answer is:
6) Go to every lecture and recitation (if your school has these). Go to office hours if you have trouble on some homework, NEVER skip a homework assignment, and don’t fall too far behind on the reading unless people assure you that the class absolutely does not need the book for the tests. Then, when studying do every practice exam they offer in as close to a real test senario as you can. These are pretty good ways to get good grades. I should add not procrastinating always helps, if you’re rushing the night before to finish some homework you will undoubtably start skipping class to finish things and that’s when studying for tests get very difficult.</p>
<p>The kid KNOWS this is subjective. That’s why he asks you to indicate the college at the end!</p>
<p>Why not give your personal experiences, you veterans?</p>
<p>Quitejaded, honestly, this is my logic: It makes more sense for him (or her) to post a list about the colleges that he/she is interested in so that some posters can give more helpful comments. Talking about my random college probably isn’t going to be of much help, since I checked EBHSSAT’s profile and it says that he/she is from Jersey (I’m assuming EBHSSAT is probably not considering a college in my state, but I could be wrong). Again, just my logic.</p>
<p>If he is looking for advice.</p>
<p>Or maybe he’s looking to see which college to look into. If he likes the sound of your college, he may look into it. </p>
<p>Or maybe he is trying to find out what he likes (maybe he doesn’t KNOW if he wants big classes or small ones).</p>
<p>You don’t know. But I think it’d be generally interesting if you guys would just put your personal experience.</p>
<p>dood college life is effing amazing. it’s been the best experience of my life. go to berkeley, it’s fun</p>
<p>I hate it when people say things like that but don’t say why…</p>
<p>1) my classes range from 250 student lecture hall to a 4-person honors discussion (check out your potential colleges’ honors programs, because they can add A LOT to your college experience!)
a lot of the profs here will videotape the lectures and put them online, so some students (like me) rarely go to those classes. some students prefer the lecture environment (profs will still take questions, even in large lectures). also, they tend to use powerpoint presentations or overhead slides, and use a microphone, so even if you’re sitting in the back (unless you’re nearsighted like me) you can hear/see everything quite well. not taking into account bad handwriting on chalkboards :rolleyes:
2) i haven’t had a science class yet xD
3) class hours are pretty much related to units. 15 units (average) = about 15 hours of lectures/discussions per week. it can vary but that’s a good rule of thumb. here, students typically take 14-20 units (that’s three or four classes). studying varies depending on the class: some classes, all i have to do is the homework. sometimes i need to review the readings. next quarter i’ll be in statistics… i predict i’ll be studying quite a bit every day… (not a math person)
4) my tests aren’t harder than high school, but then again i’m a psych major :rolleyes: if i were an engineering major, i’d be saying differently… in any case, i took a good load of AP classes which had tests that were usually harder than those i have now. HOWEVER, tests/quizzes count for a lot more than they did in high school! if you screwed up a test, you’d have a bunch more chances to redeem yourself. here, your grade can depend on as little as one midterm (40%), one final (45%), and your discussion section grade (15%). that was my anthropology class. most classes, especially math/science, have two midterms, and weekly problem sets for homework. so you really want to keep up on the material, because messing up on one test has much larger consequences.
5) my dorms (blissfully) don’t have those. we’ve got private baths. but i’ve been in community bathrooms, and while i don’t love them… a bathroom’s a bathroom xD
6) don’t get behind on the material, and don’t get cocky/overconfident about what you think you know. i took physics last quarter and got an A on the midterm. it was basically a repeat of high school physics. second midterm, i get a C (luckily it was curved to a B). but then i also got a C on the final. so, my shoo-in A became a B- for the class. i also didn’t do my homework every week. just don’t get behind, be disciplined, and if you need help, go to your professor’s office hours. they are there to help you. TA’s are a great resource too, as are fellow students/tutoring if you need it. but mainly, do all of your assignments and don’t let something slide by if you don’t understand it.</p>
<p>1) depends on the class. My history class this quarter is about 400 students, and my Arts class last quarter was only 40. It really depends on how many people need it for their major.
2) I have chem lab this quarter. You have lecture once a week and a 3 hour lab once a week. pretty standard (pre/post labs due each week). (again this is very dependent on which lab class you are taking)
3) im in class 16 hours a week (including discussion/lab) and do about 2 hours of studying a day (right now we’re in finals week so its much much more)
4) everything is harder than high school
5) i don’t have communal bathrooms this year
6) best way to do well is simple: study a lot.</p>
<p>btw im a freshman at ucla.</p>
<p>I am a freshman at Carleton College.</p>
<p>1) My smallest class so far has been 14, and next term I will have a class with 45 students. I think the largest class here is intro bio, which is capped at 100 students. Just one of the reasons I wouldn’t trade my school for anything.</p>
<p>2) Labs are 4-hour periods once a week. Lab sections are always small, so larger classes will have many lab sections.</p>
<p>3) I have class 5 days a week, but on Thursday all I have is a language practice session, and Tuesday is lab and language session. Including my lab and language sessions, I spend 16 hours a week in class. A typical student without either of these things would only spend 10 hours a week in class. The amount of time that must be spent on homework and studying varies greatly depending on what courses a student is taking. Anywhere from 1 to 4+ hours a night is normal.</p>
<p>4) Yes. Middle school is harder than elementary school. High school is harder than middle school. College is harder than any of those. It is just a natural progression.</p>
<p>5) I think people worry about this issue far too much. Community bathrooms are just like the bathrooms in the mall, Subway, etc, except they are usually kept cleaner. It’s not like you are going to be in a huge room showering and taking care of your bodily functions with your dorm mates looking on. There are stalls with plenty of privacy.</p>
<p>6) Do your work, don’t slack off too much, and talk to your professors if you are having trouble or need help understanding a concept. Also, don’t be afraid to check out tutoring services, the writing center, etc. if you need them.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at Frostburg State, a small public, in MD</p>
<ol>
<li>My smallest class, spanish, has 12 people in it. My biggest, Human Geography has 40. Tbis one thing I really like aboout my school. I would hate going to a I giant school where I was one of 100+ kids in a class.</li>
<li>I have yet to take a lab science, but my roomie is a bio major. She’s taken Bio and Chem both semesters, with lecture MWF and the labs for each class on Tues and Thurs(one lab Tues, the other Thurs). The lab sessions are about 2 hours for Bio, 3 hours for Chem. She does graded lab assignments and has tests about only what has been going on in lab.</li>
<li>As others have seid, it depends on the class. If I know the material and am strong in the subject, I don’t spend as much time studying for a quiz or test. If I’m weaker in the subject that the test is in or I don’t know the materia as well, then I put more time into studying. This smester, I have 3 classes MWF, 50 minutes each, and 2 classes Tues and Thurs, 1hr 15minutes each. Last semster I had a class that only met Thursday evenings, it lasted 2 1/2 hours, which is how long you spend in any class for the week at my school. </li>
<li>Yes, quizzes and tests are harder. Theoretically, if you had what it took in high school to get into the college, then you should be able to handle the workload once you are actually a student at that college. I know it doesn’t always happen, but that is the expectation.</li>
<li>Community bathrooms are tolerable. At my school, things are kept clean and organized when the cleaning lady(bless her!) comes in to mop and empty the trash every day. Over the weekend, it’s not so good. People dump food trash and beer cans in the bathroom. They leave tp smoke in the stalls(which is prohibited). It doesn’t smell particularly good. It almost makes me thankful for Monday to roll around. It’s definately my least favorite aspect of college. </li>
<li>The best way to get good grades: Study for everything at least once, even if you know the material really well. Always go to class and actually do your best to pay attention. Go to office hours if you need help. Keep up with the reading; it WILL bite you in the as when finals roll around if you haven’t read.</li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>Georgia State University</p>
<p>1) That depends. Most comprehensive Intro classes and survey courses (like Intro to Anthropology, Art History surveys, Intro to Political Science) are pretty big; they’re your standard lecture halls with 70-150 students. Then again, some classes like English 101 and Spanish 101 are pretty small…around 20-25 students. It just depends.</p>
<p>2) Labs tend to be conducted by a grad student and the department (Biology, Geography, Chemistry) comes up with the tests based on the lab manual. They might be later in the day as the main lecture class, or they could be on a different day. There’s usually a small group of students…enough to have a lab partner.</p>
<p>3) I don’t study much (I just show up to class, pay attention, and take notes…but you can’t coast like that in every course) and it depends on which type of class you take and how many. You don’t have to have class everyd day, you don’t have the SAME class every day, and you don’t have class all day (unless you make your schedule out that way). Currently, I have class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I had a Tuesday and Thursday course, but I dropped it.</p>
<p>4) Eh…once again, that depends on the class, the teacher, and your study habits. They’re about the same, honestly. Some teachers give you long tests, but not as many. Some teachers give you shorter tests, but you have a couple of them. Some professors cover a lot of stuff between tests which sucks. A lot of students lament a lot of assignments in classes, but teachers who give you a lot of quizzes, a couple tests, maybe a paper or two, and an optional semester-long extra credit project…are harder to fail. But if you only have three tests…you can’t mess up. But the tests aren’t necessarily harder nor easier…</p>
<p>5) Huh?</p>
<p>6) Hmm. Show up to class, maybe join a listserv and meet up with some people to study (its not as hard as it sounds), don’t procrastinate (because it’s easy to do), and take easy teachers and easy courses. Don’t try to challenge yourself with core courses. Trust me. Like, if you have a science requirement and you aren’t a science major, don’t go for Astronomy or Chemistry. Go for one of the Geosciences and save yourself the headache.</p>
<p>Thank you guys! I’m starting to reconsider the community baths!!</p>
<p>Freshman @ UCLA:
1)How big is the classroom?
<p>2)How do you do the labs for science classes?
<p>3)How many hours do you study and How many days do you take classes per week?
<p>4)Are the quizzes and tests are harder than high school?
<p>5)How are the community bathrooms?
<p>6)What are the best ways to get good grades?
<p>I was thinking MSU,UMICHIGAN,COLUMBIA, and NYU, as well as PENNSTATE.</p>
<p>All the answers are seriously going to be different, even from people at the same school…</p>
<p>1) My largest class was I think about 150 students, smallest was 8. Most of the classes in my major are 15 people. It completely depends on what kind of classes you’re taking.</p>
<p>2) Never had a lab science.</p>
<p>3) Most of my classes are not really typical ‘get lectured about something for 4 weeks and then take an exam on it’ classes. I don’t really “study” except before exams, maybe 1-6 hours per exam. I have 18 hours of classes and about 15 hours of projects and other homework per week. Sometimes I have classes all 5 days, and one term I only had class 2 days a week…depends on how you schedule things.</p>
<p>4) Hard to say…I would be inclined to say that the exams are harder because I didn’t generally study for anything in high school and I study for my exams now. That depends on what sort of high school you went to as well.</p>
<p>5) Umm…large?</p>
<p>6) Depends on what sort of class you’re taking. If it’s a typical class, go to class, take notes, study before exams. If it’s some sort of studio class where you’re being graded subjectively…other than making the professor like you, I haven’t figured that one out yet.</p>
<p>Wesleyan University: </p>
<p>1) As others have said, there’s a range. My biggest class has had about 80 people, the smallest 18. Some classes get up to 150, maybe 200. Most of my classes have been 30ish people, give or take.</p>
<p>2) I don’t do labs.</p>
<p>3) I take classes 5 days a week, though I know lots of people who arrange their schedules to have Fridays off (and one person who has Mondays off!). I hope to have a 4 day week next year, but we’ll see. It depends on whether the class if 50 min. three times a week or 1hr 20min twice a week.</p>
<p>I find I study a lot more for tests than I did in high school…3 to 7 hours for the hard ones (though there have certainly been tests that I’ve only studied an hour for, if I thought I really knew the material and just wanted to go over a little of the readings). There is also just a LOT more reading on a daily basis. </p>
<p>4) As others have said, it depends. I’ve actually found that college is harder for the things I’m good at, not the things I’m bad at, because I avoid the hard classes in those subjects. So, for example, my the tests in my science for non-majors are not as hard as my AP Chem or Physics tests for high school (though they aren’t easy either). However, a lot more was expected from the essay tests I took in my History class, and papers I write that would have gotten an A in high school only get an A- or B+ in college…I have to work harder/be more creative and precise to get an A.</p>
<p>5) Fine. Ours are cleaned every day.</p>
<p>6) Stay on top of the reading! But ALSO: figure out when you don’t have to do certain readings, so that you don’t waste your time. For example, in my science class this semester, we are only tested on what we learn in class, and the readings are just supplementary articles on the subject that our profs found interesting. My roommate says the readings help her understand/remember the material, but I’ve found I don’t need to do them to do well.</p>
<p>Also, don’t procrastinate. It sucks to have to stay up all night trying to learn an entire 50 years of European history in one night. And although I’ve found I do perfectly well on papers finished at 3 in the morning, it’s a lot nicer NOT to write them all in one night!</p>
<p>1)How big is the classroom? 250 person lectures, 20 person recitations</p>
<p>2)How do you do the labs for science classes? yes, its 25% of the class grade</p>
<p>3)How many hours do you study and How many days do you take classes per week? classes everyday… study for 6 hours </p>
<p>4)Are the quizzes and tests are harder than high school? yess, about twice as hard as APs </p>
<p>5)How are the community bathrooms? we have our own in-room bathrooms</p>
<p>6)What are the best ways to get good grades? try to look at old exam questions, take good notes, get used to the teachers teaching style</p>