<p>The undergraduate deans and advisors at my school tell us that you need to study 3 hours per week for each credit hour, but that’s pretty unrealistic. I’m also sure nobody here studies that much, and I should know as I’m taking about the maximum credit load.</p>
<p>Anyways, realistically, as a freshman taking 17 credit hours (Gen Chem, Calc III, Physics I, Intro to CS, and 2 other filler/no HW classes), I probably spend about 15-20 hours a week studying. “Studying” encompasses doing homework and practice problems, because the best way to study for engineering is to solve problems. It’s not like history (got my AP credits for those, thank god) where you sit in a chair for 5 hours at a time cramming/memorizing for an exam. You can try and cram for engineering exams, but you’ll probably just end up memorizing some formulas and a couple isolated examples.</p>
<p>Basically, do the homework, which should be similar to the exams unless your professor is a jerk, and then a few nights before the exam, do the problems that weren’t assigned for HW/get problems from other resources. You might want to read over the textbook chapter quickly (especially if it’s a memorization heavy subject like orgo), but most of your time should be spent doing what you expect to see on the exam. It takes different people different amounts of time to feel comfortable with the material, but there are only so many variations you’re likely to see on an exam.</p>