<p>Usually they are 1hr long. How long do you stay to ask questions on average?</p>
<p>Until my questions are answered. I’ve stayed for an hour and sometimes for 2 minutes. It really varies.</p>
<p>I’ve never been to an office hour and I never plan to</p>
<p>10-20 minutes. 10 if I have a couple questions, 20 if I need help with the final project. Sometimes 30 if the project’s particularly intensive. Once an hour. Freshman year I went in a group (possibly about tips for a midterm?) and we asked a question that got a 10-minute response and then a second that got a 50-minute one and I felt uncomfortable leaving. I was cranky about that one because I had class 10-12 and 1-3 and his office hours were at 12 so I did not get to eat lunch until late.</p>
<p>Most people stay 10-15 minutes.</p>
<p>about 30-45 minutes</p>
<p>I don’t know when I’ve ever gone to a professor’s office hours. They’re almost always scheduled during either another class or when I’m working.</p>
<p>On the flip-side, you should really only go if you have genuine questions to ask and not just go to go. If you have actual questions to ask, that’ll dictate the time it takes to spend with the professor. It could be really short, it could be really long.</p>
<p>I write this because I know that this is the point where a lot of freshmen are starting to be confronted by the reality of their struggles in the classroom.</p>
<p>The #1 way to start addressing any and all classroom problems is to GO TALK TO THE PROFESSORS IN THE CLASSES WHERE YOU ARE STRUGGLING. I know that it might be embarrassing, I know that it might be scary, I know that your professors may have made it clear that they have priorities other than undergraduates, but you have to suck it up and go. In twenty minutes I can correct understandings and suggest study tactics that it would take most students an entire semester to generate, even if they did seek out other peers and general tutoring resources. I’ve been teaching my subject long enough that I understand the common errors that students make, why they make them, and how to best fix them. No one else on campus has that knowledge, and I’ve found that students who stubbornly try to fix their issues by seeking out extra help without keeping me in the loop do not usually see significant improvements (unless they just had bad basic studying/reading skills) because without me to explain precisely what a student is doing wrong, tutors can only be of limited help.</p>
<p>Even if you’re not struggling, go to office hours. [WARNING: Humanities perspective now in effect. What follows may not apply exactly to all types of disciplines. Those in lab disciplines may need to substitute “lab” for “office”–I don’t know] My best letters are always the ones that I write for students who regularly visit my office. I simply have a superior and more nuanced understanding of their intellect, the trajectory of the development of their ideas, and their sense of curiosity and creativity. If you are interested in research opportunities, those are the types of letters that you will need.</p>
<p>SLACFac, I like you! You sound like an awesome professor!</p>
<p>To the OP: I am one of those people who really take advantage of professors’ office hours. As SLACFac pointed out, most professors really do notice that kind of thing. That’s why they have office hours, to help students! I’ve spent as much as 30 minutes with my professors during their office hours, and it has made a difference!</p>
<p>Spend as much time as you need with your professors as it takes to get your questions and concerns answered.</p>
<p>Never. I never know what to say, so if I were to go in to any of my professors’ office during their office hours, I would just be wasting their precious time standing there and trying to figure out what exactly I want help with or what I don’t understand.</p>
<p>However long it takes for me to get my answers. Sometimes it takes like five minutes, others as long as a hour (although this is mainly visit to my biology teacher). Either way, it made a BIG difference in my first and second exam for my biology class. First one I got a 60 one, which kind of shook me, the second one I came out with a 98. Hoping the three other exams I take are A’s.</p>
<p>People actually go to office hours?</p>
<p>From my experience, if it’s a class that is primarily problem solving, (ex: engineering, math, some sciences) the professors office hours get way overcroweded. The office can be totally consumed with kids and I’m lucky if I can get in 3 questions in two hours so I have chosen not to attend on many occasions in the past for this reason. However, my math classes (I’m a math major) have been getting smaller now as I’ve gone through more specefic classes and office hours are becoming more manageable since there are less students in the class. For any non-problem solving class that I’ve taken (I usually label these as reading classes), the professors office hours are typically totally empty. I will occasionally be confused about what a teacher did for a particular math problem but I’m never confused when sitting in history class and my teacher is just showing a power point with information that essentially must be memorized (as opposed to info in a problem solving class that must be understood). If you need letters of recommendation, then it is extremely important to have a few professors that know you very well that are preferably in your field of study and in upper division coursework. Attending a professors office hours would be very important in this regard because that would be the best way for the professor to learn more about you, otherwise there’s no way that professor can write a good letter of recommendation for you.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to see anyone say they don’t go just to not waste the prof’s time. You’re entitled to it! Some profs even complain that no one shows up. Even so, you or your parents or whoever is paying the prof’s salary and they’re required to keep those hours. </p>
<p>I would rather spend <em>some</em> time with profs, unless I really have no respect for them, even if it’s just to say hi, ask about their research, talk about something that expands on lecture. So i might stop by for 5-10 mins between classes, or longer if i actually need help.</p>
<p>Haha longest is like 20 minutes. Typically… 0 minutes I hardly ever go to office hours</p>
<p>I try to make an effort to get see each one of my instructors, atleast one. I get the vibe if they are office hour friendly or not, in the sense of, some all you haft to do is walk in and say “hi” and its pretty easy to get into a conversation, others will just answer your question and “have a good day” type exit situation. Longest I’ve stayed was for an hour and a half talking about all kinds of things, he was the professor ive connected the best with.</p>